Fruit Flies Turn to Alcohol

[PJ and Zach]

I read this article, and all I could think about was that it would be a fun discussion for those crazy doodlekisses members.  :)

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2012-03-15/Sex-deprived-m...

[F, Calla & Luca]

If this was for crazy DK members why did you put it in the science group? JK. Interesting article.

[PJ and Zach]

Tee hee.  Aren't ALL DK members crazy? 

[F, Calla & Luca]

All people may be : )

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Fruit flies are hilarious when they're a bit tipsy.  I had to do a lab in university where we "drugged" fruit flies with carbon dioxide (to make them sleepy so we could count them).  They would try (and fail) to walk around when very sleepy, I imagine their drunk fruit flies looked pretty similar.

<nerding out>

It's interesting, but I wonder if they just naturally gravitate towards slightly rotten fruit (which often becomes alcoholic). 

To me it seems possible that that chemical they mention (NPF) is just released as a natural reward (like endorphins) when they eat very ripe fruit.  Really ripe fruit would likely have more simple sugars due to natural decomposition, so would be a higher value food source than an under-ripe fruit (with less sugar and less alcohol).

Sometimes it feels like "Sexy" science stories cause people to overlook a more logical behavioral/physiological basis for why animals do things. :p  It's a fly, not a person!

</nerding out>

[Pat and Traveler]

Makes sense to me, J.  Sometimes the writer needs a 'hook' so people will read the information--might be what happened with this article.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Perhaps flies and people have more in common than we realized...