Name: Margot Wohl
Hometown: Bel Air, Maryland
Hobbies: Yoga, cooking, watching movies, cuddling with my cat
What do you study? I study the brains of fruit flies to find which genes, molecules, and brain cells play a role in their aggressive behaviors. That’s right, flies fight!
Why is it important? Violence leads to a lot of human suffering and can be a symptom of diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s. Fly and human brains have many differences, they are also similar in many important ways that may allow us to learn about what causes people to be violent. But, even if what we learn in flies doesn’t directly apply to humans, we can still study how a brain can add up signals from the environment and decide which behaviors to perform.
What do you like about being a scientist? Every day as a scientist is filled with successes and failures, with hurdles that require logic and trouble shooting skills, with questions that haven’t yet been answered by anyone else before. Thus, while many days may be stressful and disappointing, they are rarely dull and almost always require me to use lots of brain power!
This is a short video of flies fighting. Why do you think the flies only fight when the light turns on? Ask me about this in my SciChat!