Hamlet. What does a mutation in the hamlet gene do? Oh. Um, um, depression, uh, talking to a skull,

uh, really hating your uncle, uh, being a small ham. Um, I'm going to cut you off.

That was very impressive.

From Science Friday, this is science diction.

I'm Johanna Mayer.

And today, we're talking about gene names, fruitfly gene names.

And also defenestration.

Okay. de-penestration. Back in grad school, I spent a lot of time with fruit flies. I was studying evolutionary biology,

doing experiments that honestly rarely worked out. I was not

good at this very basic thing that you don't even have to be a scientist to do, which is keeping

fruit flies alive. Science Diction Senior Producer Ella Fetter. That is me. So I had some long days in the lab

just sorting unconscious fruit flies under a microscope.

And I, you know, I was often bored. And to pass the time, I listened to a lot of Gwen Stefani.

So Hollaback Girl was a big album at the time. But not everyone in the building was a fan of these beats that were coming down the hall.

And one day, this professor from the lab next door suggested that I might listen to, like, anything else.

And he asked me if I'd heard of podcasts, which I had, but I wasn't totally sure what they were, and I was kind of stubbornly

refusing to even find out. It sounded like some trendy new gadget. But I gave it a shot,

which led me here, and in a roundabout way, I have fruit flies to thank for it. So today is a

celebration of fruit flies, and we have company. I am Helen Zaltzman, and I make podcasts including The Illusionist, an entertainment show about language.

And the occasion for all of us getting together, fruit flies. Or to be specific, their genes.

Helen, Helen, so you probably have heard about how some people with COVID have been losing their sense of smell.

Hmm.

...