Liz and Norbert at the movies

However, imagine yourself, if you will, surrounded by 22 eager [read:impatient], inquisitive [read: demanding] and communicative [read: shouting]eleven-year-olds, whilst simultaneously hearing: `Is this fly a girl or boy?',`Are these specks pupae or larvae?', `Is this fly poop?', `My flies are escaping. Are they going to bite me?', `But Mendel used peas, right?',`Teacher, Sandy's gonna be sick!'

Now imagine yourself in total control of those same 22 eleven-year-olds while all 44 eyes are glued to the tube [more than likely their favorite activity], with each of the above mentioned questions answered in living color during a 40-minute educational and entertaining CD-ROM entitled Fly Cycle². Joy!

For these reasons, among others, the 40-minute CD-ROM created by Mary Tyler and Ronald Kozlowski, with contributions from Rachel Fink, Shinya Inoue, Dan Kiehart, Eric Wieschaus and Paul Young, should become a welcome and familiar tool for students in biology and genetics classes at primary school and high school, and at undergraduate and even graduate levels.

Fly Cycle² introduces the viewer to the life cycle of the fly from several perspectives. First, a section on reproduction provides clear and detailed footage of adult courting behaviors and mating [teaching aid: tell the kids it's for adults only]. Second, Fly Cycle² illustrates beautifully the various stages of embryonic development, larval growth and metamorphosis. Third, a number of the mutant phenotypes commonly used in introductory Drosophila genetics courses are described.FIG1 

This is not all, the CD-ROM also includes two text files: one that annotates the movie, and a 40-page booklet with additional materials related to Drosophila research, instructions for laboratory studies, a glossary and links to online study questions. The movie combined with the 40-page booklet will be particularly useful in undergraduate genetics laboratories. It will not only supplement the student's materials but will help teachers design laboratory exercises that will complement the movie. Undoubtedly, teachers will be able to come up with other creative ways to use and present the information provided in Fly Cycle². Overall the movie is a wonderful contribution to the field, and will be appealing and useful to a wide audience from primary school kids to postdoctoral fellows. However, there is room for improvement, with the main drawback being that it provides too little or too much depending on the viewer's level of knowledge. For students just being introduced to the fly,some parts of the movie are too detailed and their attention spans will be tested (e.g. the level of detail on the first 13 embryonic cell cycles will be too much for them). However, this same footage would be highly interesting to advanced students. Likewise, the advanced student will smile at the more basic footage (e.g. how to distinguish a male from a female), whereas younger students will find this most informative.

The target audiences of FlyCycle² are as diverse as the field of Drosophila genetics that it addresses. When making the movie, the authors must have struggled with what to include and what to leave out. For example, oogenesis, so intensely studied today, is not included in the current version, nor is there presented a practical way to handle and perform genetic crosses.

Perhaps one way to sufficiently address the needs of each target audience is to think of the next step: what will Fly Cycle³ look like? Our suggestion would be to divide future Fly Cycle³content into sections targeting each audience level. Fly Cycle³ Part 1 could target younger students and fly novices,and could describe the Drosophila life cycle, sex differences and mating behaviors, as well as explaining salivary gland chromosomes and showing common genetic mutations. Fly Cycle³ Part 2 could target more advanced students (those taking lab classes), and could include basic genetic information like how to pick virgins, how to make and follow simple F₁ and F₂ crosses, and how to clone a gene. Finally, Fly Cycle³ Part 3, for the most advanced students, could describe novel visualization methods using green fluorescence proteins to follow specific developmental processes, and could include descriptions of various genetic technologies used in research today.

Stylistically, the movie could be improved with a more energetic narrative and, particularly desirable, pauses between sentences and subjects, as well as more pointers/arrows to direct the viewer's attention to the structures being described. Finally, although there is a terrific introduction in the movie,the ending is too abrupt and a summary would be helpful.

Nevertheless, we give Fly Cycle² two thumbs ups, we highly recommend it and we look forward to Fly Cycle³. As far as we are concerned, this educational tool should be promoted, made widely available and developed further.