Fruit Flies Sure Enjoy Ejaculating

Throughout history we’ve blushed and called it la petite mort, the sting of pleasure, the balsamic injection, the flood of bliss—the list continues. But let’s cut to the chase: I’m talking about ejaculation. It’s almost seems as if some deep-seated Puritanical modesty compels us to semantically sidestep addressing this perfectly natural function. Perhaps we’re just a bit bashful that it feels really, really good. It’s not polite to discuss such scrumptious pleasures publicly. Humans are hardly the only species that enjoy a good climax. Pigs, bonobos, gorillas, chimpanzees and perhaps a few species of dolphins have all shown they pursue recreational flings for the fun of it. Sure, these are all highly intelligent, emotional, social creatures. But, as it turns out, even the tiny-brained fruit fly enjoys “taking a load off.” Shir Zer-Krispil and colleagues from Bar-Ilan University in Israel genetically engineered fruit flies in a way that made it ...