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A comment on Limiting flies to specific eating hours protected their hearts against aging.

Re:Limiting flies to specific eating hours protected their h... by wbhart on Friday March 13, 2015 @10:49PM (#9201374)
Fly hearts are unrelated to mammal hearts. Flies belong to a completely different phylum. Pretty much everything about the organs of flies is different to humans. They don't have lungs, they don't have a brain, but a cerebral ganglion, they don't have a full stomach, but a stomodaeum, etc. More importantly, they don't have oxygen rich blood or red blood cells. I realise that flies are often used for genetic studies that have implications for humans, but I very much doubt this study says anything much about human heart health.
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Re:Limiting flies to specific eating hours protected their h... by brobdingnagian on Friday March 13, 2015 @11:17PM (#9201429)
They are analogous, and an analogy is what we're after.
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Re:Limiting flies to specific eating hours protected their h... by IndianAstronaut on Saturday March 14, 2015 @12:06AM (#9201512)
There are things we can do with flies that we simply cannot do with humans. Doing the research in flies is often a way for us to get an idea of how things may work in humans and others. Also, while we are physiologically different, we have quite a bit in common at the cellular level.
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Re:Limiting flies to specific eating hours protected their h... by tobylane on Saturday March 14, 2015 @11:44AM (#9202968)
The trade-off of relevance to humans, and short generations (a day) seems to be best with fruit flies. I'm sure scientists have worked out what areas of research have worthwhile comparisons with mammals.
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