🌐 From Journeys to Rhythms: How Fruit Flies Teach Us About Time

[Sailekshmi (M S SAILEKSHMI)]

CUBE ChatShaala Summary – Journeys, Rhythms, and Reflections

Date: 10th September 2025
Event: 2001st Day of ChatShaala

Highlights of the Session

1. Journeys in CUBE ChatShaala

• Seethalakshmi (2021): Reflected on how CUBE enhanced collaboration, communication, and confidence.

• Sailekshmi (2024): Shared her evolving journey, mentioning peers like Enas and Theertha, showing how learning happens in community spaces.

• Shama (2016): Presented her pioneering work on Chlorohydra culture using Moina as feed at CUBE Lab, HBCSE.

2. Causerie (Discussion of a Topic):

• Circadian rhythm in fruit flies became the central point of exploration.

3. Fruitfly Experiments (2017 onwards):

• School students studied the sleep–wake cycle of fruit flies using simple setups like banana pieces in bottles.

• The diagram highlighted specific time points (6 AM, 10 AM, 11 AM, 6 PM) showing how fruit fly activity peaks follow a daily rhythm.

4. Meta-reflection:

• The difference between ChatShaala and PartShaala was discussed, reinforcing how informal conversations (ChatShaala) spark deeper structured studies (PartShaala).

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What I Learned Today

• Learning is not just about experiments but also about the journeys of individuals—how communication, collaboration, and persistence build scientific temper.
• Fruit flies, though simple organisms, mirror complex biological rhythms, making them excellent models for studying circadian cycles.
• Science in CUBE is deeply democratic and participatory—students, teachers, and mentors together contribute knowledge.

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TINKE Moments (This I Never Knew Earlier)

• Fruit flies show daily activity peaks that can be linked with human sleep–wake cycles.

• Banana pieces are not just food but an accessible tool to culture flies, making high-end labs unnecessary.

• Journeys of members are as valuable as data—they sustain motivation and community growth.

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Gaps and Misconceptions Identified

• Many still confuse ChatShaala with PartShaala, not realizing the importance of informal exploratory conversations before formal research.

• There is limited clarity about how exactly to record circadian rhythm data—whether observation times are sufficient or whether more systematic quantification is needed.

• Misconception that fruit fly studies are too complex for school students—when in reality, CUBE’s history shows otherwise.

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Provocative Questions for the Community

1. If tiny fruit flies follow a daily rhythm, do humans and other organisms share a universal “biological clock”?

2. How can simple models like fruit flies and banana pieces challenge the notion that science requires sophisticated labs?

3. What sustains a scientific community more—data from experiments or personal journeys of learners?

4. Should we view ChatShaala as the “soil” and PartShaala as the “plant” that grows from it?

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Reference

• Circadian Rhythm: What It Is, How It Works & What Affects It

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/fruit-fly-model#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20major%20objectives,in%20neurodegenerative%20diseases%20are%20presented.

• https://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/using_research_stanovich#:~:text=32.to%20consumers%2C%20such%20as%20teachers

• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359005828_Regulation_of_biological_clock_through_circadian_rhythm_in_insects

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@Arunan @2020ugchsncnseethala @magpie @dhanraj7 @GN @SN1261 and others.