Male fruit flies enjoy ejaculation

Source: Male fruit flies enjoy ejaculation

The question has arisen as scientists try to tease out the neurobiological steps in how the brain’s natural reward system can get hijacked in alcoholism, says neuroscientist Galit Shohat-Ophir of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel.

Male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) were genetically engineered to ejaculate when exposed to a red light. Ejaculation increased signs in the insects’ brains of a rewarding experience and decreased the lure of alcohol, researchers found. After several days in this red-light district, the flies tended to prefer a plain sugary beverage over one spiked with ethanol. Males not exposed to the red light went for the boozier drink, Shohat-Ophir and colleagues report April 19 in Current Biology.

And, somehow, this is a surprising finding? That a male gets satisfaction from ejaculating. That reward is an artifact of the drive to propagate their genes. If it wasn't, the population of any entity would be negligible.

Earlier lab research has shown that male flies repeatedly rejected by females are more likely to get drunk. Those with happy fly sex lives don’t show much interest in alcohol. Shohat-Ophir wondered what aspect of sex, or lack thereof, had such a profound effect on the brain’s reward system.

Another groundbreaking finding. That when a male is rejected and not able to ejaculate, they get drunk.


I sure hope that private funding was used for this study. LOL.

originally posted by: Krakatoa

I sure hope that private funding was used for this study. LOL.

Cmon! This is way more super cool than a million bucks for a shrimp on a treadmill.

i'm happy for them.

Welp. That's great. Have they found the cure for cancer yet?

a reply to: Krakatoa


Jesus Christ, they could have sent me a fraction of that cash and I would have told them that at great savings to the taxpayer.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

As entertaining as that was, I could do that experiment for like 100 bucks. Pretty sure "they" are just making # up now.

a reply to: Wookiep

The university doosh went on to admit he built the treadmill for about $20 worth of junk he had laying around.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Lol

Also...

Time flies like an arrow:
Fruit flies like a banana

-- attributed to Groucho Marx

I can't wait for a more advanced civilization to start using us as guinea pigs. We'd have absolutely no room for criticism or say it's terrible.

It's probably a good thing we are alone in the universe

Do make fruit flies have to cuddle after sex?

originally posted by: lostbook
Do make fruit flies have to cuddle after sex?

We don't know yet. That's the next multi-million dollar "research" project. :p

a reply to: Krakatoa

I just want to know how much the scientist was paid to jack off this insect.

And on a side note, did the scientist enjoy it too? Perhaps share a smoke with his or her winged beau after?

..............stay hydrated..... just saying......yup......

Figures they didn't check out how the lady flies enjoyed it.

Ass hat men.

/sarcasm!

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: Wookiep

The university doosh went on to admit he built the treadmill for about $20 worth of junk he had laying around.

Not exactly.

Take the case of the "shrimp on a treadmill." Burnett says the senator's report linked that work to a half-million-dollar research grant. But that money actually went to a lot of different research that he and his colleagues did on this economically important seafood species.

The treadmills were just a small part of it, a way to measure how shrimp respond to changes in water quality. Burnett says the first treadmill was built by a colleague from scraps and was basically free, and the second was fancier and cost about $1,000. The senator's report was misleading, says Burnett, "and it suggests that much money was spent on seeing how long a shrimp can run on a treadmill, which was totally out of context."

www.npr.org...


And, in case anyone did not read the excerpt quoted in the OP (which would seen to include the OP), the point was not to find out if fruit flies like to get off.

The question has arisen as scientists try to tease out the neurobiological steps in how the brain’s natural reward system can get hijacked in alcoholism, says neuroscientist Galit Shohat-Ophir of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel.

www.sciencenews.org...

But feel free to continue the anti-science agenda.

a reply to: Phage

Big fan of that shrimp study are yas.

I'd like to see the face of the scientist who was sitting in a room with other scientists, debating what to research next, and proposed fruit fly ejaculation as the next experiment which needed answering to.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
Seems to be valid research.

In our investigations of the responses of shrimp, crabs, and oysters to infections with the pathogenic bacterium Vibrio campbellii, we have become interested in how a bacterial challenge can influence the performance of organisms in the field.

burnettl.people.cofc.edu...

Do you have something against research which can have direct benefits?

yea so you say but maybe we can save these guys some money
something to help them get in the mood photobucket.com...#!
I hear they enjoy a after sex smoke as well .
God this is funny