Love and a Regurgitated Gift

In the world of fruit flies, romance can take surprising forms. The species Drosophila subobscura has a peculiar courtship ritual: before mating, a male must win over the female by giving her a gift. But instead of flowers or chocolates, he offers her a tiny mouth-to-mouth meal of regurgitated food. Interestingly, their close cousin Drosophila melanogaster—the fruit fly most often used in laboratories—doesn’t do this at all.

So what makes one species a generous suitor while the other skips the gift exchange? Japanese researchers discovered that the difference comes down to a single gene, called FruitlessM (FruM), which helps wire male brains for courtship behavior. In D. subobscura, this gene switches on in a group of brain cells that regulate feeding. When FruM is missing, the cells don’t grow the connections they need, and the males fail to present their nuptial gift.

Even more intriguing, when scientists turned on FruM in the same brain cells of D. melanogaster, something remarkable happened: the cells sprouted new connections, and the males began regurgitating food more often—hinting at a hidden potential for gift-giving buried in their biology.

This research shows how a small genetic change can spark big differences in behavior between species. What looks like a simple act of food sharing is, in fact, the product of evolutionary history written deep in the wiring of the brain.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Climate Warning Signs Were There 130 Years Ago – If Only We Had Noticed
Preventing future fires in Hawaii is possible, but the question remains: Are animal activists and politicians prepared for the necessary measures?
Seeing sex developed novel cultures

From Sugar to Sweeteners—And into the Fire?

Noncaloric sweeteners are widely used in foods and beverages to provide a sweet taste without the calories of sucrose. However, some studies suggest that these sweeteners may stimulate appetite—essentially leading from the frying pan into the fire.

Chakravartti and colleagues sought to investigate this by giving 75 young adults a drink containing either sucralose, sucrose, or water. To study the effects, they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the consumed drink affected the hypothalamus—a brain structure that plays a key role in regulating appetite.

Compared to sucrose, consuming the noncaloric sweetener increased blood flow to the hypothalamus and triggered stronger hunger responses. The results highlight the complexity of the neural mechanisms that regulate appetite and indicate that replacing sugar with noncaloric sweeteners is not a straightforward solution to obesity.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Shower Taking and Interfering Elephants
Traditional beliefs turned out to be wisdom
Microbial solution to malnutrition?

Biafran rebel leader living in Finland

Simon Ekpa is an immigrant living in Finland, and leads his armed Biafran forces in Nigeria via social media. When interviewed, he said that he accepts military - violent - behavior from his troops against Nigerian army or police, but not against civilians.

As my reader may recall, Biafra attempted to gain independence from Nigerian rule in the late 1960s but failed. The independence war is remembered for the first TV reports showing starving children. And that is why in Finland parents still say that children have to finish their food because Africans are starving - although no one knows how that could help children living far away.

In Finland, Biafra is also remembered for its national anthem, which is "Finlandia" composed by Jean Sibelius. And actually, in the opinion of many Finns, this composition should also be changed into the national anthem of Finland. 

Coming back to Simon Ekpa and his attempts to separate Biafra from Nigeria. His actions are not appreciated in Nigeria, and there has been contact with the Finnish government.

The Nigerians have said - referring to actions of Ekpa in Nigeria - that "it seems that the situation is getting out of hand. And we say: too much is too much. We are telling you in the strongest possible terms that it is high time that you support Nigeria's efforts to do something about it immediately as the situation threatens the upcoming elections."

The fact, however, is that Finland has freedom of speech and the government has no legal way to stop Ekba from taking the message he wants to his supporters in Nigeria. And therefore the man can go ahead and call on his supporters to boycott Nigeria's upcoming elections as long as he does not commit illegalities according to Finnish law. 

Ekpa may, however, face some troubles. That is because he is an active local politician of the major Conservative party of Finland, which is considering right now what to do with him. Perhaps he will be expelled from the party.

The case is interesting in many ways. One thing, however, is clear: if the people of Finland's autonomic region - Åland - wanted to become independent, it would happen without problems by organizing a referendum in that province. There would be no need for war or violent terrorism to achieve the goal.

So let us wait and see what happens to Simon Ekpa and his Biafran people in Nigeria. Will he become a major politician in independent new country, or is he going to be forgotten as someone who caused a bit of trouble far away from his home in northern Europe. 

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Independence day of Finland now and 83 years ago
Corruption in Nigeria may affect Europe
Aikamme uskonsodat (Religious wars of our time; readable in English using Google translator)

Microbial solution to malnutrition?

According to Unicef, more than 10 million children are at risk for starving in East Africa. The causes include drought, increasing food prices and escalation of armed conflicts.

That is not anything new, as probably we all remember previous episodes of famine in eastern Africa. What is new, however, is a finding of new means to reduce the consequences of food shortage. 

That development was reviewed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the USA. According to that, a unique mix of foods such as peanuts and bananas supported the growth of age-appropriate microbes and helped to restore the health of malnourished toddlers—and the outcome was more effective at improving their health than standard supplements.

The review also reported that offering plant-based diets high in fiber, and diets high in fermented foods such as kombucha and kefir to kids - and also their microbes - had positive effects to their health after periods of serious malnutrition. As an outcome, they increased the growth and intellectual development of children.

Most interestingly, when the researchers fed malnourished toddlers with a special food supplement twice a day for three months, the children gained height and weight in patterns similar to their healthy peers. That was different form the standard treatments.

Overall, the recent developments are encouraging, and may lead to new ways to save children´s lives in eastern Africa and elsewhere where malnutrition occurs. That could probably also reduce the number of people searching for better life in western countries in Europe and North America, and therefore help in avoiding risks of instability caused by a collision of different cultures seen e.g. in Sweden.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Riots in Sweden: what next?
World Resources Institute had an arrogant demand

A new route for the Ukrainian crops

Ukraine is one of the most important producer of crops. Therefore the Russian attack to Ukraine might have a major impact on the food availability in some countries - especially in the Near East/North Africa.

Today it was reported by the Helsingin sanomat that a new route has been established to Ukrainian agricultural products. That goes via Poland and Baltic sea. Using that route, the first ship managed to bring 18 000 tons of corn to Spain. The ship - named Alppila - was sailing under the Finnish flag.

This news was of extreme importance taken that hunger is understandably the strongest force causing instability in the developing world and pushing masses of people towards north to look for better life. And that will - ultimately - cause many kinds of problems even in the receiving countries as seen e.g. in Sweden. 

Therefore it was important that the cargo managed to make its way to Spain, and will have successors in the near future. At the same time, it reduces the effects of Russian actions to stop export of Ukrainian products and its attempt to put pressure on western nations to stop their military support to the attacked nation. 

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Ivory trade from Greenland to Ukraine
Riots in Sweden: what next?
Military specialist: Russian plan in Ukraine was incredibly poor

World Resources Institute had an arrogant demand

World Resources Institute -organization demanded me and other people in western countries to reduce our consumption of meat. The demand was based on a claim that in future there will not be enough food to everyone, because the global number of people grows rapidly and the size of agricultural fields cannot be increased as that would reduce forest area and therefore accelerate the climatic change.

In other words, the organization asks me to change my eating habits in order to allow people in developing countries to continue their uncontrolled reproduction behavior. The logical reasoning here is interesting. Or actually similar to the one in the following two examples.

One. Imagine an economic adviser from a bank with a male customer, who has lost his control over playing net poker, and therefore loses all family income to internet players. The adviser proposes that the wife of the playing husband should stop having once-a-month restaurant evenings with her friends, and save the money that goes to good food and wine. And also proposes that children should give up their expensive hobbies. So the man could afford his poker playing.

Two. Imagine a policeman coming to an apartment, because a violent man with gonorrhea demands a right to spend a night with the family wife - with all the rights. In order to fix the problem without violence, the police proposes that the wife should agree with the gonorrhea-man. The husband, therefore, should spend his night in the sofa of the living room, and reserve to his wife an audience for a medical doctor to get antibiotics to cure the possible gonorrhea infection. With these arrangements there is no need for the gonorrhea-man to give up his desire.

For some reason I do not believe that any of my readers - not even possible vegans or polygamous people - would accept the solutions of the economic adviser or the police in these imaginary situations, but understand that such solutions would be intellectually dishonest and therefore unjustified. It is weird, however, that the fully analogical demands by the World Research Institute seems to receive full support among many journalists and politicians.

In a poll by a Finnish afternoon magazine, 57% of respondents considered wide civil rights as an important feature of the Finnish nationalism. During the independence day of my country (December 6th)  I enjoyed this freedom by having delicious food including mushroom soup and a large beef steak with excellent wine. And thereafter a bilberry pie with a sweet dessert wine.

Thus, I have no intention to change my eating habits to enable people in developing countries to continue their irresponsible behavior, because such a demand does not make any sense (reasons are explained here).  Instead, I send here a free advise to the World Resources Institute: they should focus on real problems instead of sending arrogant demands to me. The first topic to be addressed - if the goal is to feed all people in the world - should be to stop the self-indulgent population growth in developing countries.

The original though in Finnish:
Järjestö esitti järjettömän vaatimuksen