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Using Magnets To Turn Off the Brain's Speech Center
An editor for the Telegraph, Roger Highfield, recently volunteered to allow a UK researcher to shut off the speech center of his brain with a high-powered magnetic pulse. Regular speech is controlled by a section of the brain called Broca's area. Once the precise location is determined in the subject, a magnetic pulse can temporarily disrupt speech without impairing other cognitive functions. The link contains a video in which you can watch Highfield stutter and twitch while attempting to recite a nursery rhyme. A later test shows that he's able to sing the rhyme without difficulty, since singing is controlled in a different part of the brain (as you may remember from Scott Adams' speech disorder). Researchers believe that the ability to stimulate or quell activity in specific areas of the brain may help in treating conditions like epilepsy and migraine headaches.
needs a zappie!
pff... real networks have been doing this stuttering thing since 1995.
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
You can imagine govememnts using it matrix style "What good is a phone call if you can't speak, mr anderson?"
Great...
Imagine being able to use this at Gitmo:
"Sir, we've zapped him twice, and he still refuses to talk."
"Isn't that the point private?"
"He must be guilty. Lethal injection time."
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
... that take away my speech centers when I meet a pretty girl.
That test subject had a lot of courage. No way is my brain getting zapped.
I wonder what would happen if the magnetic pulses were applied to more important sections of the brain, such as the area that controls autonomous bodily functions, like the heart. I suppose, if it is capable of knocking out the area of the brain that controls speech, it should be capable of knocking out the section of the brain that controls other, critical bodily functions. Is it only me, or do you see a potential weapons application for this in the future?
shouldn't it be from the bzzt-ow-bzzt-ow-bzzzzzzzt-........ dept?
A man spends the first half of his life accumulating stuff, the second trying to get rid of it all.
Ok, so the proof of concept is done.
;-)
Now, how do we build this into cell phones?
caller: Like OMG! Theres PONIEZ!!
device: *BZZZT*
caller: Like OMG! Theres PONIEZ!!
Ok, so in some cases drooling and twitching occur naturally...
A Human Right
but can they make you sing folk songs?
Monstar L
The notion that this pulse "turns-off" the targeted segment of the brain isn't correct. The pulse does NOT remove power from the brain or suppress neuronal firing. Instead, it disrupts coordinated firing of the neurons by inducing a spurious current in the neurons. Thus it is more like randomly applying a signal to the pins of a CPU than to cutting power or clipping pins.
I can't imagine that this pulse is very good for neuronal tissue in the short-term or long-term.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
If we could use brain stimulation for interrogation purposes (such as disabling parts of the brain which are used to forge lies, or to inhibit actions), it would eliminate the need for torture as well as its pitfalls. It would also open up a huge ethical/privacy/human rights can of worms, which is another plus ;-p.
The technology to do this is (apparently) called transcranial magnetic stimulation. And even though it looks really freaky in the video with the twitching and everything, it appears to be safe as long as you don't suffer from epileps; in fact it's routinely done for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.
I guess you still shouldn't try it at home, though.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Heck, this is perfect! I'm sure this will get massive government funding. Hecklers be quiet!
to target politicians? Ack, that could be worse. Singing politicians?! Makes my brain hurt. Oh, wait, we really want to target the bullsh*t centers of the brain. Then again, when it comes to politicians, the target is HUGE. Like shooting fish in a barrel.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Just put headphones on the victim and feed their voice back to them with a 1-second delay for instant speech impediment fun and frolics. No danger of erasing your victims credit card or being sued 10 years later when they blame you for giving them a brain tumor.
(I guess people who work in the TV and radio industry or who spend long periods talking on echoey long-distance phone calls will have developed immunity, though).
Obviously doesn't have the same neurological implications as the zapper - but that's not to say its not interesting.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
If only this had been developed 20 years ago, I'd still be married. (I'd have ordered two right off the bat -- one for her and one for her mother.....)
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
before the USA makes laws restricting the export of strong magnets.
This technology is called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (or TMS).
You could use its weak magnetic field to turn off the entire brain. Getting an anvil on the second floor is the hard part though.
Next up: Pianos have magnetic fields too (you insensitive clod).
For monastic orders with vows of silence and problem monks.
Invenio via vel creo
It's eerie how these transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) techniques are similar to theories near the defunct concepts of Phrenology. I hope that this search for unique centers in the brain doesn't underestimate its abilities to integrate information, important in global processes such as music creation.
"Sum Ergo Cogito"
I'm speechless!
if you can't speak? Anyone else creeped out by the implications of this study?
And the magnets prevent in TVs can take the entire brain out. What a surprise !
Non-Linux Penguins ?
This is very exciting as it could point to a future where you can literally hack your own brain. So far it looks like he can only temporarily disrupt parts of a person's brain... what about enhancement? What about non-invasive brain I/O?
... now I think after seeing this video ... perhaps it had a grain of truth? Hopefully someone will conduct some experiments.
What I think could also be very interesting is what kinds of background effects do things like the Aurora have on people's brains? I lived in far-north Alaska for many years and I remember that anecdotally everyone talked about strange dreams when the Aurora was active. It could have been merely a sub-conscious suggestion that active Aurora leads to altered dream states or
[signature]
How soon until they install them into movie theatres?
So here I was, speedreading through /., and the scientific suggestion of
"Using Maggots To Turn Off The Brain's Speech Center"
snatched my Sunday morning mind's attention like a zombie. Litereally. So, is there something here I'm missing? Like how does one direct those blood suckers to the speech center of a brain, assuming it's not major surgery to introduce them? And why...? Is DARPA going over to the dark side in the fight against terrorists?
Alas, after 15 second of grimacing and beweilderment I realized my sleep-hazed eyes were misreading.
Dang, I hope I didn't give some royalty fee collection company another bad idea to file a patent for...
So I say we implant the device in Jack's brain and rig up a long lasting power source, scientists get their research, and we can to make him shut up.
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
but I find nothing replaces a good Olde Timey Pimp Slap to shut someone up. :)
politicians...?
That's Magnetic Pulse Weapon Overlords. It has a nice ring to it, and on regards to your use a gun proposition, there are many benefits for an MPW.
1) Silent, so you could take out a number of people one after the other, without the possibility of being detected using normal techniques.
2) It could be used to take out a number of people before anyone would realize they are under attack.
3) It probably would have better range than a bullet. Of course one downside here is the range may be an issue. It may be hard to create one powerful enough to get any real range out of it. Although I could see a possibility for a MP bomb
4) Once the brain is sufficiently mapped, key target areas would be easy to focus on. But that being said, who says a MPW needs to be discriminating. Why not create one powerful enough to get the target area and some other areas too, just to account for possible aiming errors and target movement?
Of course it would make a great security device. "Get your new Magnetic Pulse Window now, before they're all sold out. Guaranteed to stop even the most determined burglar, or we'll pay double your losses. Just remember, once you install one of these don't attempt to get back in the house through the window when you lock yourself out. Also stops those pesky teenagers from sneaking out at night when they're grounded. *Disclaimer: We are not responsible for injury or loss of life resulting from falling out of windows due to this device."
Also, the airport security personnel would probably love to incorporate these into they're arsenal. It would make selective screening so much easier. No more disgruntled passengers, although they'll probably have to do something about all the drooling, shuffling passengers.
Hey its like the musical episode of Scrubs!
Truth, Just Us, And Hatred For All Mankind!
what use is a phone call if you are ... unable ... to ... speak?
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
i need one of these to shut up my wife
We just need these magnets installed in every school.
You're making the classic engineering mistake: mis-defining the problem.
Disrupting the speech centers of the brain does not preempt attempts at communications. And you need communication; it's just that men, left to themselves, would communicate by passing terse status messages: "I'm hungry"; "I'm angry"; "I'm going to sleep"; "I want sex."
Women send the same status messages, but they seem to gain satisfaction out of the process itself. Therefore they send messages in steganographic form: the basis status messages are there, wrapped all kinds of other data which do not require your immediate action. It pays to pay at least some attention; she may start an "I want sex" status message by telling you that her sister's neighbor's aunt is going in for a gall stone operation.
The wise man knows that he should celebrate the differences between the sexes if he wants to celebrate the difference between the sexes.
Therefore, it is best to cultivate the skill of appearing mildly interested and engaged, making reflexive, non-committal listening responses, and paying just enough attention to pick out any cues that indicate something that requires immediate action. It's a lot like driving, actually. You get that sixth sense for when somebody is going to cut you off, or roll into an intersection without coming to a stop. It's not magic, it's practice.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
In other news, it was revealed President Bush has been wearing a toupe for years to hide an area of partial baldness. "I love it!" Mr. Bush exclaimed. "I found this great place that uses rare earth magnets to keep 'em on your head. Real convenient like."
Wouldn't it be more fun to turn on the pleasure center than to turn off the speech center?
Is it only me, or do you see a potential weapons application for this in the future? With the proper mastery of magnetism and the human mind, a team could build, in a helmet, an amplifier device that could be used by a trained professional to target individuals precisely, anywhere in the world.
I'd call this contraption... "Cerebro".
You can't take the sky from me...
That's awfully close to 'mindrot' in Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky".
how does one direct those blood suckers to the speech center of a brain KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
You can't take the sky from me...
hi everyone,
:)
:)
TMS is an increasingly useful technique in lesion studies... the lab i'm working in right now is using aphasics and dementia patients to study semantic memory... but with TMS you don't have to use (victimize?) people with brain damage... in many ways it's more ethical and potentially easier since you can use undergraduates
btw, broca's area doesn't "control" speech -- it is an area that is involved in language, but it's not the end-all of language production.
people with damage to broca's area typically have trouble generating expressive speech. they can't find words, there's very little articulation, and they can't really elaborate on things... but, they can still understand (usually) what is being said to them.
the other classic aphasia is Wernicke's aphasia... contrast the two on youtube:
Broca: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IiMEbMnPM
Wernicke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVhYN7NTIKU
there is no single part of the brain that "controls" speech -- the brain is not constructed like a computer... or at least, any computer that humans can build in 2008...
-m
Imagine the marriages that could be saved if this technology could be incorporated into a small portable device. "Have you mowed the lawn yet? When are you going to fix the kitchen sink? Have you had the oil changed yet? My mother is coming over toni" ....zap....
Now imagine how many more marriages there would be. Go out on a first date, introduce my self, ask one open ended question then zap myself... I cant screw it up!
Have gnu, will travel.
Doesn't this imply that non-ionizing EM (for example, radio waves) may in fact disrupt brain function in some way? A high intensity pulse can apparently disrupt a major function. What does a high level of EM background noise do? Does it lower the S/N ratio (for example, generate random neuron firing), making coherent thought more difficult?
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
As long as the person is expecting their speech to be disturbed, and they can hear/feel the exact moment that the magnet is pulsing, the effect could be purely psychosomatic. They really need to test this on someone who's not expecting these effects. It may be ethically a bit strange, but it's the only true test.
I've got a speech impediment that is almost exactly the same as Highfield's magnetically-induced one (and I'm a pretty good singer, too). Does anyone think this magnetic "weapon" could be modified to do the opposite?
Nard bwrf glab zneff bwaa boo miffo grufle blamp! Hell No!
Table-ized A.I.
There's actually another neat video (from an intro psych textbook website from a couple years ago) showing the effects of TMS on Broca's area. The guy counts numbers upwards, and as they stimulate Broca's on the left side he experiences a disruptive effect (afterwards saying, "That was cool" ;). They also stimulated on the analogous region on the right side, showing that this participant had no observable effect.
So they gave him instructions before they started, "If you start to feel pain, tell us to stop. OK, now we're going to disrupt your speech center."
"Where can I give money for this idea?"
Yes, you guessed it. It's fraud, in my opinion.
It's not "magnetic stimulation". It's electrical stimulation. They are inducing a current in the brain, which not surprisingly interferes with the operation of the brain, since the brain partly operates with electrical currents.
In my opinion, there is more fraud. Here is a quote from the article: 'Prof Allan Snyder, at the University of Sydney believes TMS can act as "a creativity-amplifying machine".'
Roger Highfield, science editor of the Telegraph newspaper, should not let people experiment with his brain. Although he doesn't seem to be using it.
"A later test shows that he's able to sing the rhyme without difficulty, since singing is controlled in a different part of the brain"
I had a friend who couldn't complete a sentence without stuttering. However, he was a great singer and experienced no stuttering while singing. I now understand why.
A device most married men will want to buy for their wives.
Although they are still in the early stages, the possibilities for migraine treatment are interesting to me. I'd read about the brain-center-zapping before as a way to interrupt pulses and stop a migraine as it is beginning, and all I can say is that shooting my brain with E/M pulses sounds a hell of a lot better than taking strong pills that cease to work after a few years.
Or shooting my brain with a gun, which has seemed like a good idea during a few migraines. (As my coworker who also suffers from migraines once told me, "If there were a cliff next to me, I'd jump off it to stop the pain.")
I mean, with the right arrangement of magnets, could we get the brain to boot LILO ?
Nullius in verba
Anyone know what the gauss level was that they were using? I'm thinking that targeting the medulla would be a patently bad idea - unless you were one of the TLA's here on the planet who wants a method of assination which is forensically immune (well, for the most part anyway - how many cop shops are really going to look for magnetic residues?)
And if you don't use a high enough gauss level to kill, it could certainly disable (cops using this instead of a TASER?)
OR another thought is using it at a low enough level to convince the target that they have some medical illness, and then use that as a method to get them where you want them to be at a certain time/place - perhaps for implanting a tracking or listening device in/on their person? Or perhaps to get them to sign over power of attorney for some nefarious purpose? Or...
The possibilities are endless and frankly scare the hell out of me. There may be some *good* uses for this technology, but as with all things, the bad is there too...
And they said living by high voltage sources can't hurt you. Yeah... This is basically the same thing, a magnetic field disrupting your brain function.
Or you could do something far better and more sensible and hook up with a cute guy.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
It would be interesting to see the effects of a hit on Wernicke's area... shutting off nothing but grammatical morphemes, as well as pitch, rhythm and tone, might be a funnier video. ;)
All I want to know is, where's the "WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong?" tag?
Sadly, sexual orientation is not, to the best of my knowledge, something one can alter at will.
wonder if the CIA's looking into this. Would seem plausible that with proper research it could be used to disrupt your ability to lie or resist questioning. Electromagnetic truth serum if you will
- the effects are local. Whereas using electrodes, you basically fry the whole brain.
- much finer tunning : you can slightly increase or dicrease the probability of neurons firing in target area, and have a lot of freedom of controlling how much "slightly". In my opinion, there is more fraud. Here is a quote from the article: 'Prof Allan Snyder, at the University of Sydney believes TMS can act as "a creativity-amplifying machine".' Not exactly, this the "... and maybe one day, we'll cure cancer / produce fast and cheap petabyte sized harddisk / eliminate terrorism / develop WMD", also known as "money whoring". Just putting some outrageously far-reaching speculation, in the hope the someone in the government will notice them and pour money in.
Their "creativity stimultion application" is probably just shutting down some brain regions and stimulating other to see how this altered state of mind influence creativeness. Actual artists have been doing this for age using marijuanna, LSD, etc... except for *much* *much* *much* cheaper.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
...the basis status messages are there, wrapped all kinds of other data which do not require your immediate action. So... you're saying women transmit XML? I guess that sounds about right.Using magnets to turn off parts of the brain has been around for DECADES.
We just watched a video about this VERY SAME THING in psych class a month and a half ago - A magnetic pulse was used to turn off the speech center of a subjects brain while they counted from one to ten and recited a series of words.
NOTHING NEW.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
It's information like this that makes me happy nature decided to give me no inclinations towards the opposite sex.
It pays to pay at least some attention; she may start an "I want sex" status message by telling you that her sister's neighbor's aunt is going in for a gall stone operation.
Okay that has to be the weirdest way to request relations that I've ever heard of. I promise you not all women are like this. Sure makes me appreciate my wife. She may be a little indirect at times but she doesn't bring her sister, her sister's neighbour or gall stones into the request.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
So if those magnets are used in a concert, only the rappers will be affected right?
I, too am in that camp but in my experience that only switches out one set of problems for another. Some choice quotes from old girlfriends:
"You know very well what I mean, so I shouldn't have to say it!"
"Here wear this, I want you to look good, but not too good."
"I like it when you do things for me, but do you have to be such a 'guy' when you do it?"
That last was said just after I had replaced the Ignition coil on the car. My father worked on old cars a lot and I picked up a lot from him. She'd taken the car to a mechanic who saw a woman bringing a car in and got a bad case of greed. He said it needed a new fuel pump of all things. 50$ for parts and free labor vs. 150$ parts and another 200$ for labor and she tells me I did something wrong.
...but she doesn't bring her sister, her sister's neighbour or gall stones into the request. Damn, just when things were starting to turn kinky...Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Take this story, for example. .
It is for these reasons, among others, that I find the whole mass adoption of cell phones and the resulting soup of EM broadcast transmissions in our cities and homes troublesome, and why I find myself sighing at those who insist on repeating the telecommunications corporate propaganda: that non-ionizing radiation is harmless, (which I suppose might be true if one considers mass manipulation of human awareness 'harmless'), that the sun puts out more EM than any man-made device which therefore means that there is nothing to be concerned about, (a silly argument since life IS affected by the white noise from space, but has adapted to deal with it in some interesting ways, as opposed to deliberate coherent signals which affect cells in a variety of reliable and repeatable ways), and that studies on rats don't mean anything because rats != humans, and other such nonsense arguments.
This is just more fodder for the fire. Ignore at your own risk. (And with EM, the more you ignore, the faster and easier it becomes to ignore. Zombie nation.)
-FL
Here's another story on the technology. .
The military has been aware of this stuff for decades. Look up "Dr. Delgado", (but beware the Rense-style garbage; such nonsense exists solely to look silly and make people drop the subject. Works like a charm unless you recognize it for what it is. Like planting a trouble-maker in a crowd to start a riot thus justifying brutality. Tried and true tactics.) In any case, with the long association of the military and telecom companies, (RF and EM technology comes from the same roots, development money and minds), it becomes impossible to assume that those involved with the introduction of cell phones on the world market had no idea of the secondary effects caused by the technology or what it could be used for. Indeed, it seems very likely that their introduction was predicated on these secondary effects. (Which would, from my perspective, make them the primary effects and easy communication the carrot).
But you must come to your own conclusions. Keep in mind, however, that choosing ignorance these days leads to a buzzy kind of bliss.
-FL
Now if only you could make an electronic drug, you would corner the market, and it wouldnt be illegal.
And if it would be, make it open sourced, it would rock.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
it shows 99% of this comment, and a read more link, which only shows 1 line more. Surely the code would be better to say
if the more section is 3 lines long, then show the whole comment, even if its above its limit size.
Just one nit pick really... or slashdot could have placed the remainder of the comment in a tooltip.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Researchers believe that the ability to stimulate or quell activity in specific areas of the brain may help in treating conditions like epilepsy and migraine headaches.
Or Liberalism.
I had a book by that title several decades ago. From memory (which fails me often these days, but thanks to this slashdot thread I can now blame it on electromagnetic radiation instead of all the pot I've smoked).
There was an entire chapter devoted to psychaitrists.
"My wife thnks she's an elevator"
"Hmm, sounds serious. Have her come see me."
I can't, she doesn't stop at your floor.
"My wife thinks she's a racehorse."
"That's going to be expensive!"
"That's OK, she just won the Kentucky Derby"
"My wife eats grapes!"
"There's nothing wrong with that."
"Off the wallpaper?"
Q. How many psychaitrists does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Only one, but the bulb has to want to change.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
With a powerful enough will, it becomes a simple matter of mind over matter. Just need to identify the gay gene and will it to flip.
Scary, fucking scary. And he's giggling about it.
How would a "gay gene" evolve, exactly, since sex between two men or two women don't produce offspring?
Any such pathetically antievolutionary genetic material produced by an unfortunate mutation wouldn't be fatal, but it wouldn't be passed along, either. In order for a man to produce offspring he has to perform heterosexual sex.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Now to deploy this tech at movie theaters.
Would most likely be a bisexuality gene that can lean one way or another to various degrees. That's where choice comes in, whether or not to accept the attraction. In any case, the urge to procreate is not necessarily stifled by being attracted to the same sex.
Mmmmm... this is either +1 Funny or -1 Flamebait, depending on whenever poster was serious or not... Lets give him the benefit of the doubt and mod this Funny
No sig for the moment.
A gay uncle could be useful to the children of a heterosexual brother, since he wouldn't devote energy to raising his own kids. Apparently, the second-born son of a woman is noticeably more likely to be homosexual than the first-born, the third-born yet more likely etc. This would suggest, though, that the "gay gene", if you must call it that, wouldn't necessarely be solely -or at all- in the homosexual person, but rather in the mother, in the form of a mechanism that increases the likelihood of homosexuality.
As for it being a matter of choice in adulthood, I'd really like to see some sources for that claim. I'm strictly het, to the point that the thought of homosexual sex is not repulsive to me. I feel only utter indifference about the idea. I don't see any way to change that, but then again, I don't have any interest in doing so, either.
> In order for a man to produce offspring he has to perform heterosexual sex.
How many children did Oscar Wilde's wife have?
Or, look up Edward II of England, who is usually assumed to have been a homosexual, thanks to Marlow. He had at least five, including at least one out of wedlock (i.e., hetero sex not as part of his duty, but for fun). And, Braveheart notwithstanding, no one thought that any were NOT his, or his wife and her lover would have been executed long before Edward III's majority.
Even today, when people can BE homosexual, rather than just feel it, gays still produce 0.5 offspring per person (vs. 2.1 or so for the average person). If there are benefits to the non-pure state, as there apparently are with the Sickle Cell Anemia trait, it will even be selected FOR in some cases.
> he may be a little indirect at times but she doesn't
> bring her sister, her sister's neighbour or gall
> stones into the request.
Or at least, you never realized it, when it happened.
I'm strictly het, to the point that the thought of homosexual sex is not repulsive to me. I feel only utter indifference about the idea.
So, thinking about a couple of hottie lesbians in a passionate embrace provokes no reaction at all? Allow me to register my skepticism.
include $sig;
1;
Social norms make it necessary for a man (or woman) to marry and have children in order to "fit in", especially in the past, thus ensuring the survival of the "gay gene" in the gene pool. It could also be a gene passed on by the mother that shows up most frequently in male offspring (like colorblindness).
Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness?
How would a "gay gene" evolve, exactly, since sex between two men or two women don't produce offspring?
Are trying to use homosexuality in support of intelligent design?
And Gawd said, "Let there be men who color coordinate and sing Broadway tunes!" and there were multitudes of flamers. The flamers did enjoy playing hide the baloney with other flamers and Gawd said "Ooopsie!"
How would a "gay gene" evolve, exactly, since sex between two men or two women don't produce offspring?
In humans, the answer is easy: until recently, homosexuality was discouraged and hidden, so homos frequently married and had children despite their attraction to the same sex.
But this ignores how the "gay gene" evolved in animals, who don't have this stigma. Lots of animals display homosexual behavior. Read all about it here: Wikipedia article Somehow they seem to pass on this trait.
In some animals (like frogs), if there's not enough of one sex in a population, some animals will actually spontaneously change sex so that they can reproduce. Perhaps homosexuality is part of all of us, inseparable from our genetic code, and only gets activated for some people.
I'm sure a lot of the people who saw Iron Man saw that movie trailer...
The first stage is that you lose your ability to speak, the second stage is that you lose all awareness of where you are, and then the final stage is death.
That was kind of freaky.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
First, exclusive homosexuality is rare in nature. If not purely heterosexual, then the animal is usually bisexual (and then usually, only when the opposite sex is not available.)
Knowing that, here is one way that homosexuality can have an evolutionary advantage in social animals: pairings can increase your social bonds with members of the community, which makes you more popular. Being popular makes you more desirable as a sex partner. So, by limiting yourself to the opposite sex, you are depriving yourself of social bonds which can be used to boost your popularity among the opposite sex which CAN produce offspring. In other words, being bisexual can make you more popular, and popularity gets you more girls (if you are a male, that is the assumption here.)
If you think that was something, then you can await much more amazing effects from deep TMS, which may be only months away from being approved in Europe (sorry about FDA!) http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20789/