Scientists Exposed Flies to Crushing Hypergravity. The Results Were Unexpected

Pests are, well, pesky because they simply won’t go away. And in a terrifying turn of events, scientists found that the fruit fly—a super common kitchen pest—adapts and survives under crushing hypergravity. According to a study on the findings, published recently in the Journal of Experimental Biology, fruit flies initially show some bolstered activity under hypergravity, or gravitational force several degrees stronger than what we’re subjected to on Earth. At significantly higher levels, the flies did grow subdued. However, in both cases, the flies eventually returned to normal. In one experiment, they even mated and reproduced for 10 consecutive generations—a biological feat that’s somehow both impressive and horrifying. “We believe what we’re seeing is that gravity feeds directly into the brain’s decision-making around energy use and movement,” Sushmita Arumugam Amogh, the study’s first author and a neuroscience doctoral student at the University of California (UC), Riverside, said in a statement. “It helps determine whether to act or conserve energy.” When considering how gravity affects biology, researchers tend to investigate microgravity—the near-weightless conditions astron