When the genetically altered fruit fly was released into the observation chamber, it did what these breeders par excellence tend to do. It pursued a waiting virgin female. It gently tapped the girl with its leg, played her a song (using wings as instruments) and, only then, dared to lick her--all part of standard fruit fly seduction.After that sensational, opening, the story goes on to say that the fruitfly in question (the licker not the lickee) was, however, not a boy fruitfly but a girl fruitfly who had been "artificially endowed with a single male-type gene" (the lickee being a non-genetically modified girl fruitfly). And so, the researchers are arguing, sexual orientation should be seen not as a political matter, but a genetic one, since at least in fruitflies, it is the purview of our genetic code.
Putting aside the intellectual angles here (since it is 1:30am in Florida and I have to be up in a few hours), I just want to say that I think it's pretty noteworthy that the Times is telling us about lesbian fruitfly licking on its front page.
Also, let me say it is very humid in Florida.
Okay I have to go to bed. Enough about the playahs of the fruitfly world.
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