Mushka: Real Fly Brain

A fruit fly driven by a simulation of her real wiring diagram — 164,606 neurons. Drop sugar, wave your hand, and watch her brain light up.

Meet Mushka, a fruit fly that lives on your table in AR — and whose behaviour comes from a simulation of a real fly's nervous system.

Scientists have mapped every neuron and every connection of a fruit fly's central nervous system. Mushka runs a simplified simulation of that wiring diagram right on your iPhone: 164,606 neurons and millions of connections, spiking in real time.

WHAT YOU CAN DO • Place her on any real table with your camera. • Tap to drop sugar — she walks over, tastes it with her feet, and her proboscis extends. That decision comes from her simulated taste neurons reaching the proboscis motor neuron. • Swipe your hand at her — her looming-detector neurons fire, the giant fiber escape neuron spikes, and she jumps away from your hand. On iPhones with LiDAR your real hand is the stimulus. • Watch her brain: every neuron is a dot at its real position; every flash is a spike. • Record a clip — it goes straight to your Photos.

HONEST ABOUT WHAT IS REAL • Brain decides: feeding, escape, turning towards moving things — each checked against controls. • Animation: the way she walks, her gait, how far a jump carries her. The app labels which is which. • This is a simplified simulation of a wiring diagram. It is not a living fly and not an uploaded mind.