

Lots of Animals Learn, but Smarter Isn’t Better - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/science/06dumb.html?_r=1&ref=science%26pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

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Alex3917
The disadvantage of intelligence is probably due to single trait selection and
not the extra intelligence itself. Temple Grandin's book Animals In
Translation has a chapter about this. Ridiculously insightful book too.

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ryanmahoski
I'm inclined to agree with you. It also occurred to me that the quinine could
be disrupting fly DNA. I don't expect the journalist to detail all the
researchers' lab controls but it certainly appears these biologists
negligently compared multi-generational quinine exposed flies with a pristine
fly colony. If that is true, I hope their paper defended the methodology or
significantly hedged the results.

In humans, it is usual for small doses of quinine to cause cinchonism. From
Wikipedia: "Symptoms of mild cinchonism (which may occur from standard
therapeutic doses of quinine) include flushed and sweaty skin, tinnitus,
blurred vision, impaired hearing, confusion, reversible high-frequency hearing
loss, headache, abdominal pain, rashes, lichenoid photosensitivity, vertigo,
dizziness, dysphoria, nausea and vomiting, and diarrhea. Large doses of
quinine may lead to severe symptoms of cinchonism: skin rashes, deafness
(reversible), somnolence, diminished visual acuity or blindness, anaphylactic
shock, and disturbances in cardiac rhythm or conduction, death from
cardiotoxicity. Quinine overdose can also result in a rare form of
hypersensitivity reaction termed blackwater fever that results in massive
hemolysis, hemoglobinemia, hemoglobinuria, and renal failure. In very high
doses (higher than those used to treat malaria) during the first trimester of
pregnancy quinine may act as an abortifacient, or cause birth defects,
especially deafness."

