Genetic Effects of Cosmic Radiation in Drosophila melanogaster

STUDIES on the genetic effects of cosmic radiation have become increasingly important since the advent of regular space research programmes. Earlier investigations on Drosophila 1–8 showed discrepant results in the production of recessive lethals. Recently, Pipkin et al. 9 exposed Drosophila larvæ to a height of about 78,000–82,000 ft. for 16 h and found no breakages of the X -chromosome or gene mutations at specific loci. In the experiment reported here, dominant lethality was used as the measure of genetical effect.