Fruit fly sperm compels females to do housework after sex session

October 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Housework gives a person the same joy as his or her first kiss, says a new UK study. According to the study of 2,000 Britons, who were quizzed by cleaning materials firm Vileda, cleaning 20 minutes a day produces the same level of feel-good­hormone serotonin as a new love.

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Like humans, novice fruit flies tend to learn from their more experienced counterparts i.e. mated fruit flies, say researchers.

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - University of Exeter researchers have found new evidence to explain how female insects can influence the father of their offspring, even after mating with up to ten males. In the study, boffins found that female crickets are able to control the amount of sperm that they store from each mate to select the best father for their young.

August 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has shown that female fruit flies prefer keeping sex short and sweet because they get a reproductive boost from shorter intercourse. Since males like sex to last longer, a fight ensues.

July 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at the Harvard Medical School have discovered a previously unidentified pheromone that contributes to the anti-aphrodisiac effects observed in female fruit flies after copulation. In study, which has been published in Current Biology, Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers, along with German colleagues, report on a newly discovered pheromone produced by male fruit flies.

July 10th, 2009 MELBOURNE - A new piece of research on red junglefowl, an ancestor of chickens, has shown that males can adjust the speed and effectiveness of their sperm, based on whether they find their mate attractive. Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study adds to the growing body of evidence that males from promiscuous species, including humans, increase the chances of fertilisation when the female is deemed to be attractive.

July 10th, 2009 LONDON - Attractive males release fewer sperm per mating to maximise their chances of producing offspring across a range of females, according to a new study. The findings by researchers at UCL (University College London) and the University of Oxford suggest that, paradoxically, mating with attractive males may be less fertile than those with unattractive ones.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of University College London and University of Oxford researchers say that a study on the evolution of ejaculation strategies has shown that attractive males release fewer sperm per mating to maximise their chances of producing offspring across a range of females. Writing about their findings in the journal American Naturalist, the researchers say that their findings suggest that, paradoxically, matings with attractive males may be less fertile than those with unattractive ones.

July 9th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists are calling for more tests to ensure that artificial sperm created by some British researchers are identical to their natural counterpart, saying that further proof may make them a valuable tool to understand male infertility. Karim Nayernia and his colleagues at the University of Newcastle recently treated male embryonic stem cells (ESCs) with a range of substances, which converted them first into germline stem cells, and finally into spermatogonial stem cells.

July 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Having sex every day improves men's sperm quality, an Australian study has revealed. In a study of men with fertility problems, researchers found that daily ejaculation for a week cut the amount of DNA damage seen in sperm samples.

June 18th, 2009 Tiny crustacean big on reproductionWASHINGTON — When it comes to sexual reproduction, it turns out that size does matter, at least for a group of ancient crustaceans called ostracods. Modern versions of these tiny animals also have extra large sperm, but not to the extent of their relatives 100 million years ago, researchers report in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at McMaster University have discovered the existence of two types of males of a fiercely invasive fish spreading through the Great Lakes, which might help explain how they rapidly reproduce. They revealed that in addition to round goby males, which guard the nest from predators and look after their offspring, there exists what scientists call "sneaker" males - little males that look like females and sneak into the nests of the larger males.

June 15th, 2009 LONDON - Biologists studying sperm whales in the North Atlantic have found that mothers use organised babysitting sessions so they can go hunting for food. Scientists at the University of St Andrews, Durham University and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have discovered that females share responsibility for the younger members of a pod by establishing networks of carers.he whales are specially adapted to allow them to make long, deep dives.

April 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Fertility specialists heralded the birth of a baby girl who was conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) at their lab with sperm frozen 21 years ago, a world record. Chris Biblis, 38, of Charlotte (US) was treated for leukemia from age 13 to 18.

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Does love at first sight actually happen? Well, scientists say that the answer to this ever-existing query lies in geneticists. In a study on fruit flies, American and Australian researchers have discovered that some males and females are more compatible than others at the genetic level.