Drunk Flies Look For, uhm, Tail

This is the sort of thing that I can’t quite believe makes it into Nature Magazine. The title, no jok, is “Drunken Flies Get Hypersexual”. Perhaps I’m missing something since I’m not a life science person, but this looks like a perfect candidate for the Ig Nobel Prize. By the way, if you have never seen a video of the Ig Nobel awards you should waste some time and enjoy yourself for a short while.

Back to the science. Researchers at UC San Francisco wanted to know how flies behave when chronically drunk. The result is that they chase each other around looking for mates. They also have lower expectations for their partners and are more likely to chase flies of the same sex.

Wow.