Hot Fruit Flies
DOI: 10.1063/1.3061180
An upper air research project, in which fruit flies will be used to obtain data on the effects of cosmic radiation at very high altitudes, has been announced by the United States Air Force. The research will be carried out as an additional phase of the Air Research and Development Command’s balloon research project, which seeks data on the state of winds, temperatures, atmospheric pressures, turbulence, and types of cloud formations at altitudes between 50,000 and 100,000 feet. Controlled balloons launched from West Coast sites will carry, in addition to recording instruments, pressurized test tubes containing harmless fruit flies (Drosophila), similar to those sometimes seen on bananas. The balloons will be launched when the prevailing winds are from the west, so that they will travel over and come down in the United States.
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