While I can love a man like a brother, I cannot love him like a woman. Te thought of it repulses me and this is a normal human reaction for a man and vice versa for women I guess as my wife confirms. Cries of homophobia from the fringes, but I am not frightened of homosexuals, I have friends who are so-called gay, but I cannot understand why they have to be proud about it.

So perhaps this drug will cure the world of this anomaly and women can be happy that there are more men around for them to keep procreation on track, and women men happier that there are more women around who appreciate real males.

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

If it can be scientifically proved that the human sexual preferences is a function of the genetic and environmental factors rather than rigidly determined as gay or heterosexual at the precise moment of conception then is it a clear indication than the human beings owe their existence to evolution rather then the act of God? Surely sexual ambiguity could not possibly be part of the grand design of an almighty and all knowing God?

Wing, Poole, UK

There's a long history of this work, and Featherstone is disingenuous to suggest that "this fundamentally changes how we think about this behavior". The gene "fruitless" has been studied for decades as a regulator of sexual behavior - it is expressed in males, but not in females, and is both necessary and sufficient for male courtship behavior. Indeed, "fruitless" "mutant males treated other males the same way normal males would treat a female" in the same way that Featherstone suggests, and have for years. Even more important, we have a good idea how the "fruitless" gene interacts with the sex-determination hierarchy that specifies all of the other differences between males and females. What Featherstone has shown is that he can make male flies stupider (and therefore unable to distinguish male and female flies) not that he has found the determinant of fly sexuality.

Another Researcher, Alas, USA,

It may be true that "as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods", but human sexuality and emotions are, as Fr. Bryan Storey suggests, more deeply rooted than in the insect world. However, love is by no means always linked to procreation; it is far greater than that. The "voice of human conscience" must always be distinguished from the entrenched Voice of human Prejudice because LOVE transcends sexual preference and sexuality. This is an interesting experiment, but no more than that and should have no influence whatsoever on our perception of human sexuality.

Stephen Wilson, Rome, Italy

Speaking for humans, it's obvious our sexuality is not so hard wired. Yet for stability and permanence in love and friendship, a growth in the procreative mentality is vital in order to tune into what is hard wired, the entrenched Voice of human Conscience. Our emotional forces are stitched into the mental outlook we need to undertake. Take it from here.

Father Bryan Storey, Tintagel, UK