American culture's deeply ingrained double-standard that exalts lesbians and vilifies gay men received a boost this weekend when researchers at the University of Texas at Austin released a new study on infidelity, published in the journal "Personality and Individual Differences."

Results of the research on modern relationships, which involved 718 college students, show that half of men would be OK with their girlfriends cheating on them with another girl, while only 22% of women in the survey would be OK if their man cheated on them with another man. Interestingly enough, more women found heterosexual infidelity to be more palatable: 28% of women in the study would be OK with their man cheating on them with another woman. 

The study...

Is gender all in the head? Researchers in Spain seem to think so—at least when it comes to identifying "transsexuals." In a preview to a study set for release next month, New Scientist Magazine looks into the National University of Distance Education's work with brain scans and reports that an area of grey matter may actually hold the key to identifying transsexual people before puberty.

The key brain region involved is the BSTc. Doctors could potentially use this information to delay puberty to improve the success of a gender reassignment surgery later.

"In a study due to be published next month, the team ran MRI scans on the brains of 18 female-to-male transsexual people who'd had no treatment and compared them with those...

The war on HIV/AIDS might receive a new weapon in the form of a 'smart bomb' that 'blows up' HIV cells. According to researchers who published their findings in Science Translational Medicine, if human trials go as expected, the technique could be used to treat the devastating drug-resistant forms of HIV that are spreading at frightening speed.

Scientific American reports:

The molecule, known as a chimaera, is composed of two different types of RNA: a small interfering RNA (siRNA), designed to enter infected cells and block the expression of two genes that HIV needs to replicate, and an RNA sequence known as an aptamer, which binds tightly to gp120, a protein found on the surface of HIV and HIV-infected cells. The aptamer has a dual role:...

As if there weren't already enough reasons to hate on hot people, science now says they're smarter than the average bear (as in Smokey the Bear, not Hugh Jackman), too. Especially men -- researchers who released results of the landmark study on Monday revealed that handsome men boasted an IQ 13.6 points above average. 

The Sun reports:

More than 52,000 people in the UK and the States were measured on academic progress and intelligence as well as being scored on their appearance.

Lead researcher Satoshi Kanazawa added: "If more intelligent men are more likely to attain higher status, and if men of higher status are more likely to marry beautiful women, then, given intelligence and attractiveness are heritable, there should be a positive...

Science has found that good music inspires a cocaine-like reaction in the brain. 

For an article published today in Nature Neuroscience, researchers tested the dopamine levels (the chemical that provides pleasure) of study participants exposed to the music they describe as their favorite. When listening to music they like, dopamine levels of those studied increased on average from 6 - 9%, a "high" that scientists say is comparable to that of eating an exceptionally good meal. 

"If music-induced emotional states can lead to dopamine release, as our findings indicate, it may begin to explain why musical experiences are so valued," said Valorie Salimpoor, leader of the study at McGill University in Montreal. "These results further...

German scientists today announced the successful trial of an experimental new drug that combats the early infection of HIV. The drug, named VIR-576, blocks the virus from attaching itself to 95% of the cells in a newly-infected patient. 

Reports MSNBC:

The drug, being developed by small privately held Hannover-based firm VIRO Pharmaceuticals, reduced the amount of HIV infection in the blood by as much 95 percent in an early-stage trial of 18 patients. It works by preventing the virus from being able to anchor itself in human immune cells, according to the researchers, who published a study in the Science Translational Medicine journal.

"What the virus does is a bit like throwing an anchor to get hooked up to the cell," Frank Kirchhoff,...

Trying to rain on our (pride) parade, the Family Research Council has issued a pledge to sue DADT repeal all the way to the top.

Preliminary results from an experimental stem-cell treatment in Germany yielded optimism that an HIV positive man was cured of the disease. Today, doctors have announced finalized confirmation of the results, arguing that the world officially has its first human cured of HIV infection.

From aidsmap:

The man received bone marrow from a donor who had natural resistance to HIV infection; this was due to a genetic profile which led to the CCR5 co-receptor being absent from his cells. The most common variety of HIV uses CCR5 as its ‘docking station’, attaching to it in order to enter and infect CD4 cells, and people with this mutation are almost completely protected against infection.

The case was first reported at the 2008 Conference on ...

(Author's note: This story was featured as a quick joke over the weekend on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update," but for strict journalistic purposes I decided to investigate further...

You'll now have to lay off our backs when it comes to the fact that we can be found on them 85% of the time. It's just how nature made us! In what amounts to a true scientific breakthrough, researchers have announced the discovery of a "promiscuity gene" that promotes slutty, fun behavior in humans in the Nov. 30th issue of the online research journal PloS One. 

Thankfully, Live Science reports the story in fancy scientific jargon so we don't have to:

A particular version of a dopamine receptor gene called DRD4 is linked to people's tendency toward both infidelity and uncommitted one-night stands.

In the new study, researchers gathered a detailed history of sexual behavior and relationships from 181 young adults. They also collected...

Like Mike Huckabee, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins is in clear running for the much more prestigious D-Bag of the Year title, but today he's earned another honorable mention thanks to a blithely idiotic editorial he penned for The Daily Caller.

In the editorial, Perkins opines that repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would not only force military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages on military bases, but – despite most recent poll numbers showing a majority of troops supporting the dismantling of DADT – spark a “mass exodus” of straight troops from the military, giving the Pentagon no choice but to enact a draft.

An excerpt from the padded cell that is Perkins’s mind:

You can easily have a neighbor in military...

In what amounts to the one move the Family Research Council has made that we agree with, the anti-gay hate group is asking regular folks to fill out a comment card to let the org know how it's doing.

So, let 'em know, Instincters! Head here to sound off.