Friday, October 26, 2007

Are You Sure About That?

Interesting article about fiddling with genes and changing sexual orientation from October 26, 2007 Reuters:
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Altering a gene in the brain of female worms changed their sexual orientation, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, making female worms attracted to other females.

The study reinforces the notion that sexual orientation is hard-wired in the brain, said Erik Jorgensen, scientific director of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah.

"They look like girls, but act and think like boys," Utah researcher Jamie White, who worked on the study published in the journal Current Biology, said in a statement.

Researchers in Jorgensen's lab switched on a gene in female worms that makes the body develop male structures, but they only activated the gene in the brain.

As a result, the female worms still had female bodies, but they behaved like males.
Okay, interesting. I don't find it implausible that there is some fraction of humans who may have genetic predispositions towards homosexuality. But here's one of those statements that is either in the "You don't say" category, or perhaps, "Some people I have met make me question this":
But Jorgensen said the study is not likely to resolve the burning question about the genesis of sexual orientation in humans. "A human's brain is much more complex than a worm's brain," he said.

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