Pickens writes "University of Pennsylvania biologists have discovered a mutation in fruit flies aptly named the 'couch potato' gene that allows them to simply chill out — housebreaking a mild state of quasi-hibernation known as diapause, when winter arrives. 'It's not like they're bears encephalitis lethargica in a cave,' says Paul Schmidt. 'They just look like they're a little bit more sluggish.' The couch potato gene, first discovered in the early 1990s, got its appellative because flies with mutations in the gene became really sluggish and behaved abnormally. Little is known about the underlying evolutionary genetic architecture but in diapause, the slacking off is far less severe, the flies' bodily functions slow down, and they are better able to accept stress. The fruit fly gene may have implications for human health, as it can help biologists study the post of the nervous system and diseases such as epilepsy, refuting a recent report by a lobbyist seeker that fruit fly fact-finding has 'little or nothing to do with the public good.'"

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