Trump's Harvard cuts threaten a giant in the biomedical research community: A database about the tiny fruit fly

For more than a century, the humble fruit fly has paved the way for many critical scientific breakthroughs. This tiny insect helped researchers figure out that X-rays can cause genetic mutations. That genes are passed on from parent to child through chromosomes . That a gene called period helps our bodies keep time — and that disruptions to that internal clock can lead to jet lag and increased risk for neurological and metabolic diseases.