• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Fruit Flies & Beer

Fruit Flies & Beer

October 15, 2014
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/141015_sciup_beer.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Marcello Delirium Cafe in Brussels Belgium
People flock to the Delirium Cafe in Brussels, Belgium for some of the same reasons fruit flies flock to yeast. (Marcello/Flickr)

Like flies to beer. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

An accidental experiment with brewer’s yeast in Kevin Verstrepen’s lab has led to the discovery of the origins of beer’s fruity aromas.

KEVIN VERSTREPEN (University of Leuven, Belgium):

One Friday night I guess I was a bit too eager to get to the bar and I didn’t clean up my experiments. So I returned on Monday and I found that I had done an extra experiment over the weekend without really knowing it.

HIRSHON:

The University of Leuven geneticist says fruit flies from a neighboring lab had made their way into one of his flasks of yeast – which had been genetically modified to be especially aromatic. But they ignored yeast which lacked the fruity aromas. He and his colleagues have now discovered that yeast actually produce these aromas to attract fruit flies, which in turn spread their spores around.

VERSTREPEN:

We owe the great taste of beer and wine at least partly to fruit flies.

HIRSHON:

The research appears in the journal Cell Reports. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.  

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Animal Behavior, Chemistry, Genetics & Evolution, Microbiology
Previous Post:Snake Bots
Next Post:Programming Plants

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos