Otis Redding urged his male listeners to “try a little tenderness” with the ladies. But for some laboratory fruit flies, that may not be easy. Researchers in Stanford’s department of biological sciences have discovered that a cluster of just 60 cells embedded in the male fly’s central nervous system governs the insect’s lovemaking ability. When the cells are removed, the male fly skips the usual foreplay with his prospective mate—gentle tapping and serenading—and tries a more direct, oafish approach, with little success. The findings, published in the journal Nature, may help scientists understand how the brain orchestrates sexual behavior in other species, including humans. . . . Californians wary of the next big earthquake can add another worry to their list: global warming. In the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, experts from Stanford and other institutions warn that global climate change could significantly affect the Golden State by the end of the century. Unless fossil fuel emissions are cut sharply, they say, California will suffer through more heat waves and the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada may decrease by as much as 70 percent. Consequences for the state’s dairy and wine industries could be sobering. . . . Some parts of the brain in children born significantly preterm tend to be smaller than normal even years later, scientists write in the Journal of Pediatrics. When researchers from Stanford, Yale and Brown compared the brain images of 65 premature 8-year-olds with those of 31 healthy, full-term children, they found lingering reductions in areas of the cerebral cortex responsible for reading, language, emotion and behavior. The brains of preterm boys were more severely affected than those of girls, who may gain a measure of protection through genetics or hormones.
