Don't drink and swim: Drunk zebrafish shows why humans go nuts after booze
Darpan News Desk Darpan, 19 May, 2014 12:51 AM
For a zebrafish, “don't drink and swim” warning may not work at all.
High on booze, a zebrafish nearly doubled her speed in an experiment, leaving scientists with results that may help them find why some people on a high behave like weirdos in a party.
Researchers wanted to know how the presence of non-drinking zebrafish would impact the social behaviour of one drunkard among them.
The researchers found that because the tank was full of sober fish, it gave the tipsy swimmer a case of hyperactivity to get noticed.
“Perhaps the drunk fish moved at warp speed to indicate that it wanted to interact with its tank-mates,” said researchers from New York University.
This may throw light on how people high on alcohol normally behave in a social gathering.
“The behaviour of zebrafish suggests that the stimulus provided to the drunk zebrafish by the non-treated ones - their presence in the tank - was able to change the way a drunk fish responds to alcohol,” the researchers noted.
Know why, to the delight of your spouse, that stubborn mouse runs the moment he sees you entering the house from office? Because even the smell of a man could elicit fear in mice and rats, a fascinating research has revealed.
The pharaohs, or rulers of ancient Egypt, even got their children and infants mummified close to them, revealed a new excavation in the Valley of the Kings close to the city of Luxor.
“Life in an affluent country is more fast-paced, and there are just so many things that you have to do - leading to stress,” Louis Tay, an assistant professor of psychology at Indiana-based Purdue University, was quoted as saying.
In experiments on beetles, British researchers at University of Exeter used artificial selection and mating crosses among selection lines to determine if and how mating behaviours co-evolve with parental care behaviours.
To know if the person in front of you is lying, you may rely a lot on your instincts as more than the conscious mind, the body may act as a better lie detector, suggests a study.
