---
title: "Google’s 3D Map of a Fruit Fly Brain Will Blow Your Mind"
description: "Scientists at Google just published an incredibly-detailed 3D map of neural connections in the brain of a fruit fly, including 20 million synapses."
date: "2020-01-22"
modified: "2020-01-22"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/google-3d-map-fruit-fly-brain"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
  - "Brain"
  - "Google"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Neuroscience and Brain"
tags:
  - "brain imaging"
  - "connectome"
  - "Google"
---

# Google’s 3D Map of a Fruit Fly Brain Will Blow Your Mind

![Scientists at Google just published an incredibly-detailed 3D map of neural connections in the brain of a fruit fly, including 20 million synapses.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/google-3d-map-fruit-fly-brain.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Janelia Research Campus in Virginia\</em\>*

Scientists at Google and the Janelia Research Campus in Virginia just [published](<https://www.janelia.org/project-team/flyem/hemibrain>) an incredibly-detailed 3D connectome — a map of neural connections — for a fruit fly, including a mind-boggling 20 million synapses connecting 25,000 neurons.

According to the researchers, it's the [largest synaptic-level](<https://www.hhmi.org/news/unveiling-the-biggest-and-most-detailed-map-of-the-fly-brain-yet>) connectome ever to be reconstructed. Scientists are already using the groundbreaking map to study fly behaviors, according to a [release](<https://www.janelia.org/project-team/flyem/hemibrain>).

https://youtu.be/nu0b_tjCGxQ

To create the incredible connectome, the scientists had to slice the tiny fly brain into slabs just 20 microns thick. Then they stitched together images of each slab to construct a 3D map.

The regions of the brain included in the connectome control functions like learning, memory, smell, and navigation. They chose the fruit fly since its brain is relatively simple, but still displays complex behaviors, [*The Verge* reports](<https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/22/21076806/google-janelia-flyem-fruit-fly-brain-map-hemibrain-connectome>).

It was an incredible undertaking. Janelia executive director Gerry Rubin said in [a statement](<https://www.hhmi.org/news/unveiling-the-biggest-and-most-detailed-map-of-the-fly-brain-yet>) that tracing connections between every fly neuron by hand would take 250 people two years of work. But thanks to advances in imaging technology and deep learning, the small team of data analysts sped up the process by orders of magnitude.

The team has decided to make all of the tools they used to reconstruct the connectome [available for free](<https://www.janelia.org/project-team/flyem/hemibrain>). A [paper](<https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.21.911859v1>) describing the effort was uploaded the preprint server *bioRxiv* on Tuesday.

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)

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