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The Salt
For Fruit Flies, Alcohol Really Is Mommy's Little Helper
February 22, 2013 A glass of wine can be a welcome sight after a long day watching the kids, but fruit fly moms use alcohol from fermenting fruit to protect their offspring from marauding wasps. That's just one of the ways the tiny flies are using booze to survive the slings and arrows of existence.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
Promiscuous Males And Choosy Females? Challenging A Classic Experiment
December 13, 2012 We've all heard them: explanations rooted in evolutionary biology for why "promiscuous" males mate with many more partners than "choosy" females. Barbara J. King traces these widespread assumptions to a famous 1948 study on fruitflies — a study that a group of modern-day scientists now say was badly flawed.
The Salt
Fruit Fly Nose Says Steer Clear Of Deadly Food; Human Nose Not So Reliable
December 6, 2012 Although we can usually smell when food goes bad, humans just don't have the fruit fly's direct path from nose to brain that alerts it to food poison. But the detection of this pathway could someday lead to more research that could help us develop better bug repellants.