Reaffirming that age-old maxim that alcohol is the cause of and solution to all of life's problems, fruit flies have devised an ingenious strategy to protect their unborn young from parasites. They simply lay their eggs in alcohol, and somehow that solves everything.

The neural pathways that make up the brain arguably represents the most fiendishly complex electrical system in the cosmos, but what if not every brain is actually electrical? One pint-sized wasp might have a mechanical brain that runs like clockwork.

Many insect species have natural enemies. Often, insects are locked in an evolutionary race for dominance with another insect species — and it turns out that these wars are much more epic than we ever realized, according to a new analysis of insect DNA.

Admittedly, there's not much competition, but I'm declaring fig wasps to be the most gallant of all wasps. Males are the only known insects to put pregnant females ahead of themselves...even if they haven't had a chance to mate yet.

If seed beetles aren't careful, wasps will invade their eggs and have their own young kill the beetle larvae for nutrients. But these beetles aren't taking the threat lying down - they've developed an ingenious strategy to fight back.

Jon Favreau may have spilled the unsurprising beans on who the movie version of Marvel's Avengers consists of, but what does he know? He may not even be making Iron Man 2: This Time, He's Rusty! We here at io9 would rather see a movie that builds around the core franchise heroes with some lesser-known names from the…