ABSTRACT
By what mechanisms are the sexuality of the worker naked mole rats suppressed, and how does the queen exert her supremacy? Research at London’s Institute of Zoology by Chris Faulkes and others shows surprisingly that the main mechanism are not pheromonal (chemical) as we might immediately suppose. Mysteriously, it is the queenly presence, her behaviour, that keeps the rest so firmly switched off; which one of the British researchers has called the ‘Thatcher effect’.
