X-Message-Number: 24137
Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 21:08:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: 137'th update on fly longevity experiments

    This is the 137'th update of my fly longevity experiments. Average
temperature was 20.9 C during this run. Estimated maximal longevity using
the formula (363 - T*11.2) is 129 days.
    Of the lettuces types previously tested, only head lettuce seemed to
be beneficial. Here I seek to rule out chance, in this result from run
#111. Similarly I also look again at a sterol mixture, which appeared to
prolong the ability of drosophila to fly in run #129, though there was
also some increase in early mortality.
    Head lettuce turned out to be a dud. Once again sterols appeared to
increase early mortality. My workbook indicates that the fly food appeared
to be quite wet in many of the sterol bottles. This may account for their
increased mortality. I suspect the flies became dirty from the wet fly
food, and suffered from infections. Adding carob or coffee may have helped
prevent this. The hydrophobic nature of sterols may be inhibiting the
ability of fly food to hold water. Experiments adding some extra sugar to
the fly food to help prevent this are also in progress.

Run #137               Percent Survival on Day
supplement         10 21 30 37 44 52 62 68 74 79 90
___________________________________________________
control one       100 82 86 68 50 36 14  9  5  0  -
control two       100 88 83 73 42 10  2  0  -  -  -
lettuce, head 33%  97 88 88 66 38 13  3  0  -  -  -
sterols 54 mg      97 70 62 54 30 19  8  3  3  0  -
sterols 108 mg    100 84 63 44 25  6  3  0  -  -  -
 + carob 2 tsp     95 91 91 91 81 48 10  5  0  -  -
 + coffee 2 tsp   100 90 75 70 55 55 30 20 20  0  -
 + lettuce 33%     91 65 57 39 13 13  9  4  4  4  0
sterols 216 mg    100 67 30 30 15 15  7  4  4  0  -
sterols 432 mg     72 61 39 33 28 11  6  0  -  -  -
sterols 864 mg     83 57 44 35 13  9  4  4  0  -  -

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