The Mind's Cartographer.

The article discusses research on fruit flies. Molecular biologist Julie H. Simpson dissects the head of a fruit fly and lifts its brain onto a slide at a lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. When the slide is finished, Simpson will have transferred the brains from four more Drosophila melanogaster, each a perfect genetic clone of the others, to the hole of a clear three-ring-binder reinforcement. With each slide, Simpson inches closer to one of science's more monumental goals: producing a functional brain map as precise as a street map--first of the fly, eventually of humans. With detailed knowledge of the brain's byways, neuroscientists will able to understand how and where information is stored and thus pursue targeted treatments for epilepsy, paralysis, depression and attention deficit disorder.