Don't laugh. And don't roll your eyes, either--because this research could lead to new approaches to treating addiction.
When male fruit flies are rejected by their female fruit fly paramours, they turn to the bottle--or in this case the straw--that serves up food laced with alcohol. Just watch the video--kindly provided by Science/AAAS:
This new research is from U.C. San Francisco, and the science lies in a tiny molecule in the fly's brain called neuropeptide F. Researchers paired fruit flies, the moved the males to a separate container where they could choose from one of two straws: one that was just plain old fly food; and one that had food supplemented with alcohol.