The fruit fly, one of science's other favourite lab models, has already been subjected to extensive chemical mutagenesis, providing researchers with a wealth of useful genomic data.

BBC: Mice mutants probe human genome

But similar elements were found in fruit flies, allowing scientists to find out what genes do by knocking them out one by one and making the fruit fly the workhorse of modern science.

FORBES: Glowing Mice From China And Other Oddities

"We've tried to bring modern science to bear on this ancient fruit, " says POM President Matthew Tupper.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The second place winner at the Husky Startup Challenge, genius.box, takes that basic concept but replaces the Fruit of the Looms with simple to perform science experiments.

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