As you might imagine, transparent organisms are great for doing science. Every step of the animal’s development is plain to see, and specific features like the growth of a particular neuron can be easily tracked with fluorescent markers (not the kind you’d highlight a textbook with, but the molecular kind). It’s even possible to shine light into transparent organisms to control their neurons, as long as you’ve spliced in a light-sensitive gene. “You can stop and start a heartbeat with light,” says Edsinger-Gonzales. “You can make worms crawl.”5
This is so crazy I can barely believe it!
