The Cambridge festival features a multitude of events held throughout March and into April, showcasing the breadth of research taking place across Cambridge. This year, members of our Connectomics group joined colleagues at the MRC LMB to engage with the public and share how we study the brain at the level of individual neurons. It was a very busy day; we welcomed people of all ages and backgrounds, from enthusiastic primary and secondary school children to senior scientists, clinicians, and neurologists interested in learning more about our work.
To introduce visitors to how we study the brain at microscopic scales we used a variety of supporting tools. We had a presentation introducing the fly, its life cycle, the brain, and some behaviours exhibited by the fly like aggression and courting. We had live fly samples in a tube which were especially popular with the children, and some adults too. Most people had not observed flies so closely before, so seeing how they behave was an interesting experience.
In addition to the live samples, we were able to show visitors fruit flies under a compound microscope to see their anatomy at microscopic levels. This further engaged attendees who were able to focus, alter magnification levels and move the stage with our guidance. We had a lot of interesting comments about the level of detail they saw, with many older children having interest in the compound eyes. Alongside the fly slides, we also had brains from different stages of development, with many people shocked that fruit flies have ~140,000 neurons, some people even remarked “I’m surprised flies even have brains”, which is understandable seeing their tiny size, further emphasising the scales we are working with.
Following this, we also had an interactive neuroglancer window where visitors could interact with how we see individual neuron reconstructions and EM slices in our daily work. Everyone had fun orienting the brain and looking at different types of neurons. Paired with the digital model, we had a large 3D model of the FAFB dataset which was extremely popular with young children, who enjoyed physically exploring the organisation of the brain while we showed different regions and explained their functions. The model helped bridge the gap between the microscopic EM images and the overall structure of the brain, making abstract concepts much easier to visualise. It also provided an engaging way to explain how millions of individual images are transformed into complete three-dimensional reconstructions that researchers can analyse computationally.
Alongside connectomics, we showed examples of research carried out using fruit flies. We displayed images of genetically modified flies, including examples in which antennae had been replaced with legs through alterations with HOX genes. Eye catching images like these led to discussions about genetics and why fruit flies have become such a common model organism in research, with the ease of genetic crosses designed to investigate gene function, neural development, and behaviour being highlighted. All in all, it was a fun day with many highlights and we look forward to future events.
Aiden Blay: “It was great to interact with the public and showcase our work. Many people were learning of connectomics for the first time and had lots of fun exploring different neurons in the neuroglancer browser. They were also very shocked to hear how large some machines could be, especially for capturing the high level of detail in the images we use to reconstruct connectomes.”
Anastasia Bouchourikou: “It was an amazing experience showcasing our work to people of all ages and backgrounds. Many were astonished by the surprisingly small number of neurons in the fruit fly brain, as well as by the methods we use to study such a tiny and intricate structure. I found many of the questions from the younger audience particularly insightful, and it was especially rewarding to see some of the older children develop a genuine interest in our research and in neuroscience more broadly. I’m already looking forward to our next public outreach event!”
Myrto Mitletton: “It was great to see so many eyes light up when you explain what a fly is capable of and how we are looking into its structure and behaviour. It was an interesting and very fun experience for both us and the public. I am looking forward to the next event!”