Day in and day out, scientists devote their time to exploring the unknowns of the physical world. Here on ScienceBlogs, our many contributors do the same so that they may provide enlightenment about the questions that plague us. Questions such as: Why does black ice form? What's up with that serotonin stuff anyway? And the one question you probably find yourself wondering the most frequently throughout your daily life—why in the world do beetles have such monstrous phalluses? Today, ScienceBlogs salutes the inquisitive nature of scientists, for without them, we would be liable to just make stuff up to explain the world around us.
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If you looked at the penis of a Drosophila fly under a microscope (for reasons best known only to yourself), you'd see an array of wince-inducing hooks and spines. These spines are present in all Drosophila and they're so varied that a trained biologist could use them to identify the species of…
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