Fruit flies mating - behavior determined by genes - not learned in school
There was a report in the news on homosexuality in fruit flies. A gene was altered that caused females to perform the male mating ritual. This work if it can be extrapolated to humans, suggests that homosexuality and lesbianism are due to basic biology and is not due to nurture. Therefore nature wins over nurture. I have held this view for a long time. It seems that the genes for secondary sex characteristics or at least the genes that turn them on segregate separately during meiosis from those that determine sexual preference or behavior. Thus the behavior and the body do not always go together. This situation should help make people realize that more of our behavior is predestined than many want to accept. It should lead to greater understanding of the natural differences in the human condition. However, if some of the local talk shows are an example, the work with fruit flies will be a point of ridicule rather than a way to better understand ourselves. Others see this work as confirming that homosexuality is deviant. That is the wrong way to evaluate the work. I believe that it just shows a rearrangement of "normal" factors. Therefore both heterosexuality and homosexuality are normal. See Shang-Ding Zhang and Ward F. Odenwald, "Misexpression of the White (w) Gene Triggers Male-male Courtship in Drosophila," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, Vol. 92 (June 6, 1995), pp. 5525-5529.
In the afternoon I went up to my boat in Maine, did some work and watched the movie Aviator about Howard Hughes. I enjoyed it. It also turns out that I can get a wi-fi signal from another marina and can surf the web using broadband from my boat. It should be a great place to work.
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