On SPRINGER (AAR) - Gene change alters sex orientation in fruit flies

[BigBearJohn]

Jerry Springer happily broadcast news on Air America Radio about new research about how changing a simple gene in fruit flies can easily alter their sexual orientation. He then went on to ask how gays could be discriminated against if it were proven that God created them all gay. He said all the bigoted prejudices would have to fall by the wayside and laws would have to be changed.

The research by Barry J. Dickson and Ebru Demir of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences into the workings of a "switch gene" touched on the scientific debate about whether genes or environment determine human sexual orientation.

Male courtship in Drosophila is an elaborate ritual and largely a fixed-action pattern easily identified by the researchers.

The male taps the female with his forelegs, sings a specific courtship song by extending and vibrating a wing, licks her genitalia, and then curls his abdomen for copulation.

Through gene splicing, they were able to swap the orientation of male and female fruit flies they studied in an observation chamber.

SOURCE: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03280606.htm

[patricia92243]

1. I love Springer on the Radio, but fruitflies - that's a little much - IMHO

[Mnemosyne]

2. I find this quite interesting John.

Won't it be wonderful when it's finally proven ture that it's nature and the fundies have to stop treating other human beings so terribly?!

:applause: :popcorn:

[TahitiNut]

3. (Hmmm...) Sounds like what Bushtard does with Barney. (Poor dog.)

:silly:

[Catma]

4. You are forgetting

science is a tool used by the dirty liberals to try and trick us into believing things that aren't true. I want to see a fundie try and explain why this is all stupid and shouldn't be trusted.

[CottonBear]

5. I know a scientist who's researching male fruit fly semen chemistry

and how the semen competes after fertilization with the semen of other fuit flies (multiple males mating with one female). Dr. Mack from UGA is doing important research in this area.