Worst Headline of The Day

From ABC News: "If There Was a Gay-Straight Switch, Would You Switch?" Everyone and I mean everyone has been writing about the bisexual fruit flies.

"When researchers strengthened neural synapses in the brain, the male flies were attracted, rather than repulsed, by the smell of other male flies.

"We put the males together, and they did to each other what they do when they're interested in a female: They approach her, sing her a song, lick her ... and mount her," researcher David Featherstone told ABCNEWS.com."

I'm: shocked that the headline is of a "would you switch" variety and also laughing that fruit flies sing. And scared that the crazed ex-gay groups are going to try to get their hands on the Magic Potion that "fixes tendencies." Gah.

Perhaps I just couldn't smell the pheromones

Something intriguing and scary: University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have isolated a gene that makes fruitflies bisexual. I'm all for science but if they can figure out a way to "turn it on or off" they may try to prevent it entirely:

"Researchers tested this idea by adding a drug to the flies' apple juice. The drug weakened the synapses. So within a few hours, flies with the GB mutation stopped engaging in homosexual behavior.
Conversely, researchers gave heterosexual male flies a drug that strengthened their synapses. Sure enough, these male flies soon were courting males as well as females.
"It was amazing," Featherstone said. "I never thought we'd be able to do that sort of thing, because sexual orientation is supposed to be hard-wired. This fundamentally changes how we think about this behavior.' "