Promiscuous females 'help species' ?

Now Im not that familiar with genetics, but this is something Ive not heard about before. The fact that if female's only have one father for their children, eventually the males will die out?? Apparently if this were to happen, men would die out within 9 generations??


uk.news.yahoo.com...

According to research by the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool, females that have multiple mates reduce the risk of producing a brood of offspring without males.

Scientists believe all-female broods will pass the chromosome on to their sons, which will in turn produce more female-only broods and eventually there will be no males and the population will die out.

The research carried out at two main UK Universities seems to be valid, do you think this is true, that men would die out within 9 generations? If so what does this say about our attitude to families and marriage ?

For this study, the scientists worked with the fruitfly Drosophila pseudoobscura

reply to post by Mr Green


Might be a bit of a jump from the fruitfly to humans.

Interesting read. Thanks!

reply to post by smyleegrl


Youd be suprised just how much research is done on Drosophila A huge amount of genetic information has been gathered from these flies, odd I know but true.

reply to post by Mr Green


This study was conducted using fruitflys. Somehow I think things may work differently among humans.


But then again...


LUCY, you got some 'splainin to do!

I'd expect that the Feminist will take this and run with it for further freedom of oppression. With the decline of the family, this is really bad timing for this kind of article.

I also agree that fruit flies and Humans are quite different, next they'll be comparing us to flat worms.

Youd be suprised just how much research is done on Drosophila A huge amount of genetic information has been gathered from these flies, odd I know but true.

reply to post by Mr Green


Yes, it is fascinating, isn't it?

But, if my high school biology is remembered correctly (and its highly doubtful), don't fruit flies have an incredibly short life span? Would that come into play?

For example, if the flies only live five days....how many other flies will they really have the chance to interact with? Can they travel far enough to encounter large numbers of potential mates?

Also, it would seem to me that the only flies affected would be those carrying that specific problematic gene....so that they would die out, but the ones who didn't have that gene would keep reproducing.

Or I could be a complete idiot and should just stop while I'm somewhat ahead.

Anyway, great post! S and F from me!

reply to post by FortAnthem


Like I say a massive amount of genetics has been discovered using these flies.

www.thefreelibrary.com...

Just one example but there are many more.

The relationship between fly and human genes is so close that human genes, including disease genes, can often be matched against their fly counterparts.

"Way more is shared between flies and humans than we ever would have expected before we started identifying the genes," said Pick.

Wow I didnt realize we were that close!!



[edit on 25-2-2010 by Mr Green]

Score one for non-monogamy!

Imagine if this does translate into humans and some idiot tried to force monogamy on the populace (as if that would be possible). Population bottle neck in less than 200 years.

there's a theory- mostly mine i think- that the population of the earth is growing because we need it to survive.
taking Gurdjieef's idea that since the moon was formed from the earth and needs human 'death energy' to keep it orbiting and protecting us.
ergo...
promiscuous females, by helping to increase the population, are in fact helping to bind the moon to this planet as protection...................still, the moon is drifting away something like 2 inches per year.......more sex please!!!


random thoughts inspired by drosophilia melanogaster.......fruit fly porn....yeah!

reply to post by Mr Green



It seems to me that, if this study were right then the human race should have gone extinct generations ago.


Unless those women are better at sneaking around behind our backs than we think they are...

Hang on a minute, I personally think it is a load of cr*p! We are not insects!!

It does not mean a woman is promiscuous if she has more than one father for her children, it does not take into consideration that her previous partner may have died or ran off with another woman etc.

What is deemed as promiscuous?

Not all promiscuous woman have children?

THE CLITORIS???? why on earth did our genes allow this organ that make us females want to do the act of reproducing even more (and only when somebody finds it!) if it would cause the dying out of one half of our species? Wouldn't this have happened already?

Why do us humans who are top of the food chain need to reproduce so much anyway?? this doesn't make sense either!

I once read that human offspring had a better gene pool when reproducing with various males.

Thank you for a very interesting thread Mr. Green. I will certainly follow this postulation closely.

I want to thank you also for helping me feel better about myself. Neither of my two children have the same father. Years ago I felt like a promiscuous woman when I was asked about the parentage of my children.

Now I can hold my head high and feel good that I may have helped save humankind.

Peace and light to you my friend.

reply to post by findlesticks


Thats an excellent point! And I don't mean the sword!

But I had a girlfriend once who was divorced and had a five year old son. That kid was awesome! He called ME dad....and his actual father by his first name lol. BUT...still didn't stop the boys mother from being BEYOND promiscuous! She was plain ole slutty! All this I find out AFTER we'd gotten together, of course.

The point being:
I have a hard time thinking that this kind of behavior (based on the bahavior of flies) is whats supposed to be natural! We're human beings! We're supposed to be held to a higher standard! People are supposed to have a higher vision than this!
And the population doesn't look like its in any danger of dying out, anytime soon!

Studies like these IMO are just tools used to let the guilty not feel so bad about some of their actions!
Just like some thread going on now about how liberal, atheists are more intelligent! Whatever makes people feel better about themselves...theres some SCIENTIFIC paper out there to comfort them and let them know that no matter what they do, or how awful they act....Its OK!

Science is now God!

I preffer the Mighty Smiter of the Old Testament! What happened to THAT guy?

Its almost gotten to the point where humans are good for ONE thing....reproducing!

But then again....I rarely make sense!

May I barrow that sword?

reply to post by Mr Green

The research carried out at two main UK Universities seems to be valid, do you think this is true, that men would die out within 9 generations? If so what does this say about our attitude to families and marriage ?

IMO you are pushing too far, using the term "promiscuous women", once that many women have more than one man, of EACH TIME, I mean, one marry gets wrong, she find another guy and not necessarily in short time.

I suppose we'll never be equal until we can read the title as `promiscuous men' without a chortle.

One can also argue that we might not WANT to be equal.

Digression mode: OFF

Where, exactly, does one FIND these promiscuous women? Didn't seem to be indicated in the article.

reply to post by Prof. Skrewloose


that ugly old re-enactment sword was stolen by the ex, he didn't like a woman in charge lol!

reply to post by findlesticks


Well....armor clad women with weapons can be frightening!
Even if the weapon looks like tin-foil lol

but thats totally off topic...SORRY EVERYONE!!!!

soon enough all babies will be designer babies. . . so it won't really matter waht kind of ammo your firing (if you follow me)

Uhm. . . Yes what can i get off the dollar menu?

Well sir we have the obama special which comes with smokers cough and a foul mouth.

We also have the George Bush special, that comes with tyranical power and an affinity for calling on god to justify self righteous causes.

Ok sorry poor attempt at humor. . . but test tube designer children are coming. . . just wait

reply to post by constantwonder


Agreed!

And they'll probably have programmable personalities as well!

Originally posted by IandEye
there's a theory- mostly mine i think- that the population of the earth is growing because we need it to survive.
taking Gurdjieef's idea that since the moon was formed from the earth and needs human 'death energy' to keep it orbiting and protecting us.
ergo...
promiscuous females, by helping to increase the population, are in fact helping to bind the moon to this planet as protection...................still, the moon is drifting away something like 2 inches per year.......more sex please!!!

Hi

I like your theory very much, it ties in with a theory I have but this is the science and tech forum and my theory goes deeply into spirituality, human creation, the matrix, energy control, manipulation and aliens so I whont go it to it here !!! All I will say on my theory is that yes indeed the "death energy" may be keeping the moon there, it may even be keeping the whole physical matrix there. Sex itself is the fuel for this. Sex fuels everything...even the matrix. Sexual energy (not actual act) in its PURE form is PURE creative energy force. It is how we use this energy IMO as to what our reality becomes, be it a spiritual realm(ethereal) or a physical realm(matter).
Another title for a thread could be...Is human reproduction the force that keeps the matrix solid!!!

Anyway back on topic and to these Drosophila. Many people are seeing their genetics as too far from ours and so are questioning if this research is even valid. I posted before just how important these flies have been for nearly 100 years in breakthroughs in human genetics.

www.lbl.gov...

In 90 years of study, the diminutive fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has yielded many of the most fundamental discoveries in genetics -- beginning with proof, in 1916, that the genes are located on the chromosomes.

D. melanogaster's importance is far greater than as a trial run for the mouse and human genome, however. In a set of 289 human genes implicated in diseases, 177 are closely similar to fruit fly genes, including genes that play roles in cancers, in kidney, blood, and neurological diseases, and in metabolic and immune-system disorders. "The underlying biochemistry of fruit flies and humans is remarkably similar," says Hoskins, "so fruit flies can provide clues to understanding human diseases caused by defective genes."

"We can find human tumor-suppressing genes in flies easier than we can in the mouse," says Susan Celniker, pointing out that experiments can be done using fly genes that would be impractical (or unthinkable) using human subjects. Especially useful is the identification of networks of other genes that interact with known disease genes, and their associated metabolic pathways. The implications for medicine are immediate

[edit on 26-2-2010 by Mr Green]