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Gems from Science

Barflies: Sex-deprived male flies go for the booze

NEW YORK (AP) - Guys, when your sweetheart says "No thanks" to sex, do you knock back a few stiff drinks to feel better? Turns out fruit flies do pretty much the same thing.

That's the word from a new study that may explain why both species react that way.

In Friday's issue of the journal Science, researchers propose a biological explanation for why "Not tonight, dear" may lead to "Gimme another beer." If it proves true in people, it may help scientists find new medications to fight alcoholism.

In that case, we can thank thousands of frustrated flies.

One by one, these eager Lotharios were put into a container with a female that had just mated. So she was really, really not interested in doing it again anytime soon. She would run away. She would kick the male. She would stick out her egg-laying organ to hold him at bay.

The male flies went through three hour-long sessions of this every day for four days, enough rejection to discourage them from trying any more.

After that experience, rejected flies were put in vials and given a choice of regular food or alcohol-laced food. They consistently went for the alcohol more than did the male flies that had just mated. In fact, they evidently got plastered.

Some rejected males were moved to a different environment, where groups of guys mingled with receptive females. After the guys had sex, their yen for alcohol declined.

The researchers also paired thousands of other male flies with dead virgin females, so that they didn't experience rejection but didn't have sex either. They still hit the sauce.

What's going on here?

The researchers did other work that implicates a substance in the fly brain called NPF. They theorize that pleasurable activities like having sex boost the activity of brain circuits that use NPF, and that feels good. If a fly is denied sex, the system goes into deficit, driving the fly to seek other rewarding activities such as drinking alcohol.

"I think it's a pretty good bet that it will translate to humans," said Ulrike Heberlein of the University of California, San Francisco, who led the research. If so, "one can say we could now understand why a negative experience, such as a sexual rejection, could drive somebody to drink."

Further research into NPF brain circuitry could shed light on the biology of alcohol abuse and possibly point to treatments someday, said Troy Zars of the University of Missouri in Columbia, who didn't participate in the new work.

Fruit flies are a favorite lab animal in part because scientists have exquisite control over their biology. Here, the researchers were able to alter brain function to zero in on NPF's role.

Whatever the relevance to humans, the work already pays off when Heberlein meets people at parties.

"It makes for wonderful conversation," she said. "When you tell them this story, they just really can't believe it"

http://www.katu.com/news/weird/Barflies-Sex-deprived-male-flies-go-for-the-booze-142883865.html
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Booze, followed by a good wank.

heh, its kinda funny picturing fruit flies wanking their tiny fly penises.
 
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1203/29f1engines/

NASA sees no problem recovering Apollo engines

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, says he has discovered massive Saturn 5 rocket engines on the Atlantic Ocean floor east of Florida, capturing the attention of NASA and space enthusiasts.

Using sonar, a team funded by the business magnate located the F-1 rocket engines from the Apollo 11 moon landing mission lying 14,000 feet under the sea, according to Bezos. He said they plan to raise at least one of the engines from the ocean floor.

"We don't know yet what condition these engines might be in - they hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years," Bezos wrote in an update on the website of Bezos Expeditions, his investment firm. "On the other hand, they're made of tough stuff, so we'll see."
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I hope they are successful! Not that it would matter or anything, I just think it's COOL. COOL, COOL, COOL.
 
It'd never occurred to me before that pieces of Apollo 11 were unrecovered on Earth, even though I know how the rocket was put together. Will be interesting to see how they look now.
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/04/lyrid-meteor-shower-2012-april_n_1402931.html

By: Mike Wall
Published: 04/04/2012 07:44 AM EDT on SPACE.com

Skywatchers are in for a treat in late April: An annual meteor shower will peak when the moon's absence leaves the night sky dark and great for viewing.

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks overnight from April 21 to April 22, with the best observing coming between midnight and dawn on the 22nd local time, experts say. The moon will be new at this time, so the Lyrids' bright flashes won't be drowned out by the glare of Earth's nearest neighbor.

The Lyrids will be visible all over the world. NASA officials estimate a maximum meteor rate of about 15 per hour, but the number could be higher or lower than this. The Lyrids are quite unpredictable, with maximum rates ranging from 10 to 100 meteors per hour over the years.

Meteor showers are generated when Earth plows through streams of debris shed by periodic comets on their path around the sun. The chunks of debris die a fiery death in our planet's atmosphere, leaving bright streaks in the sky to commemorate their passing.

The debris trails that spawn the Lyrids were sloughed by a comet known as C/1861 G1 Thatcher. The Lyrids, so named because they appear to originate from the constellation Lyra (The Lyre), have been observed in the night sky during mid-April for at least 2,500 years, NASA scientists say.

In case cloudy skies hinder your viewing opportunities on the night of April 21 — or if you just want to augment your skywatching experience — NASA will host a live chat with meteor experts from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. EDT (0400 to 0900 GMT).

Meteor experts Bill Cooke, Danielle Moser and Rhiannon Blaauw, all of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will stay up late to answer your questions, and a live feed from NASA meteor cameras will show the Lyrid shower as it happens. To participate in the chat and watch the streaming video, go to this site at the appropriate time: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/lyrids2012_chat.html

If you snap an amazing photo of the Lyrid meteor shower or any other skywatching target, and would like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please contact SPACE.com managing editor Tariq Malik at [email protected].

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
 
[YOUTUBEHD]9c6W4CCU9M4[/YOUTUBEHD]

Now you can be an annoying hipster ~hands free~.

Seriously though I thought it was all feasable (if a little unsafe) up until he said "Share to Circles" and then I realised Google was just making a fantasy video.
 
Hah, indeed.

I appreciate the technological achievement if they manage to get it working like that, but stuff like googling to find out where a particular section of a book store is just annoys me. Ask a fucking person, or walk around and have a look.
 
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