Body
The fly’s body is the NeuroMechFly model: 69 segments derived from micro-CT scans of a female Drosophila melanogaster, articulated joint by joint.
Drosophila melanogaster
A complete fly brain.
166,700 neurons. 25.6 million connections.
One fruit fly, and a registry of experiments to put them through.
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Our fly, named Specimen 237: a micro-CT-derived body with 69 articulated segments, and the MaleCNS v1.0 nervous system. Drag to rotate both.
Built from real anatomy.
Brain
The nervous system is MaleCNS v1.0 from FlyEM at HHMI Janelia: the complete male central nervous system, run as 166,700 leaky integrate-and-fire units with fixed weights.
Eyes
Each experiment renders what the fly sees from its own head. Display settings change what you see, never what it sees.
Beyond the eyes. Dedicated experiments deliver smell, taste, touch, hearing, temperature, humidity and limb-position input to the fly’s matching sensory neurons.
The body and the nervous system come from different specimens and are not anatomically registered. Read the specimen file
Every scene is rendered.Every spike is recorded.
Each scene is built and rendered in 3D. What the fly sees is rendered from its own head and delivered, as retinal input, to a spiking model of the complete male fruit fly central nervous system. The spikes that follow are recorded, not drawn.
Experiment No. 0020 · Master Mason
Raised to the sublime degree.
A 52-stage lodge ceremony condensed from Duncan’s Ritual of Freemasonry (1866). Twenty-seven flies hold the offices and walk the circuits. Our fly is the candidate.
Run this experimentExperiment notes
Runs in your browser, with the compound-eye inspector and a simulated neural panel.
7 experiments run in your browser.
Pick a camera, switch to wireframe, look through the compound eye and open the neural panel.
166,700
Neurons in the model
MaleCNS v1.0 · FlyEM / Janelia
25,582,938
Directed connections
Fixed weights
69
Articulated body segments
NeuroMechFly · micro-CT
68
Experiments in the registry
And counting
From the registry.
No. 0020
Master Mason
The fly is the candidate in a Third Degree ceremony of 52 stages following Duncan's 1866 monitor, representing Hiram Abiff in the legend of Hiram Abiff, through the raising and the closing.
No. 0040
The Abramelin Operation
The fly, as aspirant, undertakes a condensed six-month Abramelin operation in a domestic oratory, from preparation and increasing prayer to the guardian and exterior convocations.
No. 0042
The 31st Degree
The fly occupies the candidate's role in a complete presentation of a supplied Thirty-first Degree ritual text, from the cave prelude through four Egyptian altars, the weighing, judgment and investiture to the return to the cave.
No. 0036
Mars HiRISE Terrain Survey
The fly, enlarged to tens of metres, walks a looping five-stop survey route across Martian terrain built from published HiRISE stereo elevation models and aligned orthoimages.
No. 0032
Sunday Mass (Roman Rite)
The fly attends a condensed Sunday Mass in Ordinary Time as one of 24 fly parishioners, following U.S. postures and receiving Communion individually from the priest.
No. 0033
Red Laser DMT
The fly watches a red laser projection on a wall as the room melts into a jeweled tunnel, twelve holographic fly figures present geometric jewels, and the room reassembles to its opening state.
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The Workstation
Run it yourself.
Research Associates get the workstation’s complete source code: every experiment, the full connectome model, the neuron anatomy viewer and the instrument panels. Run it on your own computer once the prerequisites are installed.
Included with Research Associate, $10 a month.
Mac · Windows · Linux
Research Associates also suggest and vote on the next experiments.
Commission an Experiment.
Name what the fly should do. It is built, run on the full workstation and delivered as a 1–4 minute recording. Your name stays on its permanent page in the registry.
$237
Limited slots · 14-day delivery
Follow the fly.
Recordings are published on these channels.