2363 Wormen

Recent research on the "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" mystery has discovered some differences that are really down to earth. At least if you consider roundworms earthy.

Yes, roundworms, scourge of dogs and best friend of scientists, since they make it very easy to study certain things. This is because their simple nervous system can be plumbed for clues into the higher animal kingdom.

Earlier studies had shown that female roundworms prioritize getting food over mating, whereas males would leave a food source to find a mate. Even if that meant they might starve to death as a result.

Ah, love.

Perhaps this is the origin of taking your date to dinner and buying her candy. Or the ability of males to do really self-destructive and stupid things to get in a prone position. 

In any event, to further prove this observation, scientists used new technology to genetically modify male roundworms so they were more like females and proved conclusively that they spent more time eating and less time mating. 

They probably could have saved the money on all that expensive technology and just arranged for the roundworms to be married for about five years.

Naturally, human behavior is a lot more sophisticated than roundworms, the key scientist in the study cautioned, what with cultural factors and a fully developed brain and all. Unspoken was the reality that you look for research money where you can, and hey, you gotta feed the kids. 

Not sure how accurate an assessment this is though. Because the other scientific reality is females of the roundworm species are actually hermaphrodites and able to fertilize themselves. That being the case, why would they want to leave a food source to seek out a mate. 

They already are one. 

America, ya gotta love it.