Male fruit flies too drown their “sorrow” in excessive alcohol consumption, like huma-ns, when females reject their sexual advances.
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco have discovered that a tiny molecule in the fly’s brain called neuropeptide F governs this behaviour — as the levels of the molecule change in their brains, the flies’ behaviour changes as well.
The new work may help shed light on the brain mechanisms that make social interaction rewarding for animals and those that underlie human addiction, the journal Science reports. A similar human molecule, called neuropeptide Y, may likewise connect social triggers to behaviours like excessive drinking and drug abuse, according to a California statement. Adjusting the levels of neuropeptide Y in people may alter their addictive behaviour — which is exactly what the UCSF team observed in the fruit flies. “If neuropeptide Y turns out to be the transducer (linkage) between the state of the psyche and the drive to abuse alcohol and drugs, one could develop therapies to inhibit neuropeptide Y receptors,” said Ulrike Heberlein, professor of anatomy and neurology at UCSF, who led the research.
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‘Hobbit’ pub gets celeb backing
age correspondent
London
A pub in Southampton called the Hobbit has managed to get the Hollywood bigwigs, with the commercial rights to the Lords of the Rings, back down on the issue of copyright infringement.
The pub in Southampton has been trading under the name, The Hobbit Free House, for 23 years. The Saul Zaentz Company, which is owned by Hollywood producer Paul Zaentz, had filed a legal injunction against the pub over its use of the name for which it owns the copyright.
The company had eight years ago got the copyright for the J.R.R. Tolkien’s books Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. The Hobbit is currently being filmed in New Zealand and two actors working on the film came out publicly in support of the pub.