Who would have thought it.... Alcohol makes you gay

The researchers also found that repeated exposure to ethanol causes male flies to engage in more inter-male courtship, a phenomenon known as "behavioural sensitisation". "If a behaviour like alcohol consumption becomes more pleasurable the more often you do it, you are more likely to keep doing it," Dr Han explained. Middle-aged and old male flies were also found to have a higher propensity for uninhibited inter-male courtship compared to fully mature male flies.

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Oh, now let's not start that discussion again... It's almost implying that the relative absence of inhibitions can begin to uncover otherwise nonexistent behavior. Strange that. How on earth could alcohol MAKE anyone gay? Sounds fishy.

~ CB :: snicker ::

I've always wondered why Drosophila is such a popular model for sexual behavior. Anyone know?

Oh good lord. So now I know what happened to me!

themadchemist said:

I've always wondered why Drosophila is such a popular model for sexual behavior. Anyone know?

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Cos they are easy to maintain, reproduce like crazy and genome is mapped.

If alcohol makes you gay then I'm as gay as they come!

Mydel said:

Cos they are easy to maintain, reproduce like crazy and genome is mapped.

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We've got the C. elegans genome down and development mapped down to the cell, plus they reproduce like crazy, yet we don't touch them for these things. Too simple. Obviously, Drosophila is much more complex than a nematode, but I would have imagined this stuff would best be the province of mammalian studies.

I must be drinking defective booze then.







*looks at bottle*


Isopropyl? Isn't that the good ****?

Ah, the scientific explaination of the term gaysted.

leekohler said:

Oh good lord. So now I know what happened to me!

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You fell in a vat of Johnny Walker Blue Label as a child Lee?

themadchemist said:

We've got the C. elegans genome down and development mapped down to the cell, plus they reproduce like crazy, yet we don't touch them for these things. Too simple. Obviously, Drosophila is much more complex than a nematode, but I would have imagined this stuff would best be the province of mammalian studies.

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Another principle factor is that gestation in mammals is far too slow compared to drosophila. They take up far too much time and money for initial investigations as Mydel pointed out. Getting ethics and biosafety approval to do experiments is mammals is also much harder. Any honours/grad student can breed and study many generations of drosophila without in depth, specialised training in animal handling or the need to have on call veterinary services. But you're right, replication in mammals (preferably humans) would be the gold standard, although a lot of the time ethics and/or biosafety approval isn't possible.

And here I thought banging my head too much as a kid turned me gay...now it's all the binge drinking?


No wonder women's rugby is a hotbed of coming out...all that drinking after the socials must be what does it. ;-)

.Andy said:

You fell in a vat of Johnny Walker Blue Label as a child Lee?

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Either that or something from Buffalo Trace.

So the key to bagging a hot straight guy I have a crush on is to repeatedly get him drunk and desensitize him to my amorous behavior... THANKS SCIENCE!

question fear said:

No wonder women's rugby is a hotbed of coming out...all that drinking after the socials must be what does it. ;-)

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Ah, Rugby socials... I can't wait for spring season...
I think over half our women's team are couples...
I think i'm ending too many of my sentences with periods...

themadchemist said:

We've got the C. elegans genome down and development mapped down to the cell, plus they reproduce like crazy, yet we don't touch them for these things. Too simple. Obviously, Drosophila is much more complex than a nematode, but I would have imagined this stuff would best be the province of mammalian studies.

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sex in c. elegans is really complicated. Not your familiar male female system.

do people actually spend research grants looking into this?
wow. what a state of affairs.

You're from Canada - you just wouldn't understand.

Canada - Americas' Hat. j/k j/k

So - now there is scientific evidence to show WHY the last time I got mega drunk, I woke up the next day with a sore @$$?

And I thought it was all the bean burritos...

On a serious note - I actually learned something today. I was completely unaware, that Gay Flies even existed.

Seriously.

Wow, what a dumb study. Flies genetically modified flies turn gay from alcohol, so it means humans do too.. um, maybe they are just gay from the beginning and teh alcohol jus..... oh god, why do i even have to type this!!

wongulous said:

So the key to bagging a hot straight guy I have a crush on is to repeatedly get him drunk and desensitize him to my amorous behavior... THANKS SCIENCE!

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Come on now everybody knows a straight guy turns gay after four pints of lager.

I could have told you that!

The proof is in all the affection after 6-8 pints, especially on New Year's Eve

If not gay, then at least very "curious"… certainly correlates with my own intensive *ahem* field research.

X5-452 said:

do people actually spend research grants looking into this?
wow. what a state of affairs.

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I know, sad isn't it it.

The article demonstrates the the male flies act amorously toward other male flies when 'drunk', which I'm sure makes for a great headline, but I wonder if there's any data that suggests they also go for the uglier female flies more too, what their regrets are the following morning, whether the gay flies also hit on females etc. etc.