DNA Tweak Turns Vole Mates Into Soul Mates(a monogamous shot to give male

[papau]

DNA Tweak Turns Vole Mates Into Soul Mates(a monogamous shot to give male mate). And if we have a shot for females (it is another hormone, oxytocin, that appears to be involved in pair bonding for females), marriage is saved - but sorry kids - while the altered males spent more time with their partners, they, unlike their naturally faithful prairie relatives, did not help care for the pups!


http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-sci-monogamy17jun17.story

DNA Tweak Turns Vole Mates Into Soul Mates
Promiscuous mammals become stay-at-home dads in a study. There's no cure yet for humans.
By Alan Zarembo
Times Staff Writer

June 17, 2004

Scientists working with a rat-like animal called a vole have found that promiscuous males can be reprogrammed into monogamous partners by introducing a single gene into a specific part of their brains.

Once they have been converted, the voles hang around the family nests and even huddle with their female partners after sex.

The results suggest that "a mutation in a single gene can have a profound impact on complex social behavior," said Larry Young, a neuroscientist at Emory University who reports the results in the current issue of the journal Nature.

The research, Young said, could help shed light on monogamy — a rare social behavior — and hints that perhaps specific genes could play a role in human relationships.

But don't expect gene therapy for human swingers.<snip>

[drb]

1. Wouldn't it just be easier to make...

...women ugly?

[happyslug]

2. Don't say that to loudly

One of the theory as to women's looks (as they appear to men) and why men view those looks as being in decline after a woman turns age 25 relates to reproduction and mating. The theory basically is that as people evolved it became normal for Women to moved out of their parents group at about age 16 and than shopped around for a mate. After they have found a mate, this became a permanent situation for them. A woman's looks was used for her to entice a male to become her mate. This was done by age 25 so after age 25 a woman had less need for her looks for her mate came back to her because of his need to have her phenoms (Just like the Voles mentioned above) than to look at her body.

Thus under this theory, a Woman's looks are not as important to her after age 25 as it was at age 16. Remember we are talking about woman finding a mate AND REPRODUCING not a woman's self-esteem (a separate subject than what we are discussing here).

A woman over age 25 generally has her mate and did not need to look for a new one to help her raise her children (Which is what we are discussing here - Reproduction). She had learned what turned her mate on AND the above phenoms exchange had made both man and woman want each other for that exchange. Thus a Woman's looks become less important to her in her effort to maintain the pair bond she has with her mate. A woman's decline in looks also makes her less and less the object of other males attentions. After about age 30 she is generally no longer in the mating game, concentrating on raising her children (Thus fulfilling your comment on making woman "ugly").

On the other hand men retain their "looks" for a longer time period than women. Maybe a result of men marrying younger women but more likely the remnant of a time period when men would try to have more than one wife.

The above sounds sexist (and maybe) but I tried not to be but at the same time address the issue of why Woman's "Looks" are viewed as done by age 30 (and in decline after age 25), but men are viewed as "Hunks" for decades afterwords.