出国留学首选一诺留学

　　How do you attract a mate?

　　If you're a male mouse, you take the Frank Sinatraapproach—you sing.

　　Scientists have known about crooning male mice foryears.

　　And past experiments showed that if you leave malemice alone with an unconscious female or even withjust a trace of her urine, the males will sing.

　　If you reverse roles, the females do not sing.

　　So scientists believed that in courtship, males made all the noise.

　　Until now.

　　“The problem with the field is that we've never had a way to figure out who's vocalizing.”

　　Neuroscientist Josh Neunuebel at University of Delaware.

　　He realized that researchers needed better listening tools.

　　So Neunuebel built a mouse sized recording studio.

　　His team lined a small closet with nylon mesh and foam, which absorb sound rather thanreflect it.

　　And they installed ultrasonic microphones, because mice make sounds at a frequency that'sabove the range of human hearing.

　　That's some mouse singing slowed down so we can hear it.

　　Neunuebel's set-up made it possible for the researchers to determine that some songs were infact coming from female mice.

　　The gals that sang back to the males pursuing them also slowed down their pace, as if to say:

　　“Hey! I'm interested in you. Catch me if you can.”

　　The study is in the journal eLife.

　　Neunuebel still wants to work out more details about how these interactions occur.

　　But with improved technology, maybe the researchers can pick out pick-up lines.

　　At least the ones that sound nice…to mice.