Friday, January 04, 2008

They werent named Fruit flies for nothing

The first time they were exposed to alcohol, groups of male flies
became noticeably intoxicated but kept themselves to themselves. But
with repeated doses of alcohol on successive days, homosexual courtship
became common.
Now scientists conducting this research are optimistic that inebriating the flies would give insight to how alcohol reduces inhibitions in humans. Theyll investigate brain chemistry and all that.
But do fruit flies really provide a good model for what happens in the
inebriated human brain? Heberlein, who works on both flies and mice,
believes they do. "What is cool is that there is such a similarity,"
she says. "I am surprised by the parallels."
Right. Like humans, flies also lose visual acuity and they think Floyd over there in the corner is a hot chick. Alcohol didnt turn them gay, Professor. It turned them blind.




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