"Are you a man or a mouse?" may soon be more than a rhetorical question. It all depends on if and when philandering human males receive injections of a certain gene found in voles. (If you’re wondering where this is all going, field voles are also called short-tailed field mice. Stay with me.) Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and Atlanta’s Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, according to Nature magazine, have been busy. They have successfully transferred "the gene for a key hormone involved in sexual behavior from monogamous prairie voles into the brains of their randy relatives, meadow voles." As a result, the previously promiscuous meadow voles in the experiments had "less of a roving eye and showed a distinct preference for their current partners." The scientists doubt that the same mouse monogamy gene will work for human males with wandering eyes because our relationships are more complex. However, there is always hope. This might be the perfect time to run with the idea and inject philandering human males –— they’re all over TV talk shows — with prairie vole "be true to your woman" genes. After the prairie vole gene injections have done their work, there should be many obvious signs of loyal-again male partners in our own species. The following lifestyle changes might indicate if someone you know has opted for vole gene injections: Whenever the former "ladies’ man" emerges from his house by way of the front door, he always pauses momentarily while he wiggles his nose, looks about furtively and sniffs the air. Instead of jogging around the neighborhood on weekends, he now appears to be scampering. On several occasions he pointedly refers to his children as "the litter." Now that he’s home more of the time, that litter appears to be increasing by leaps and bounds. Their backyard, which is filled to overflowing with children and their toys, looks like a movie set for the recent remake of "Cheaper by the Dozen." Instead of getting into his car and commuting to work like so many other men on the block, the guy next door has dug and now uses an extremely long, underground tunnel between his house and his workplace. He quite unexpectedly volunteers to pick up all of the acorns that have fallen from your oak trees in the fall. "I’ll take care of them for you," he mumbles, as he stuffs yet another handful of the acorns into his mouth. Your neighbor appears to have developed a terrible, inexplicable fear of cats. When he carries gifts home for his wife, they aren’t the usual bunches of roses or boxes of expensive chocolates. His gift choices are generally limited to huge wheels of cheddar cheese, gift boxes from Hickory Farm and pocketfuls of plant seeds. Prairie vole gene injections might be the answer to infidelity in our country. Critics of the plan will undoubtedly say that it’s best not to fool Mother Nature, but it’s better than fooling around. Instead of building a better mousetrap, perhaps we should be thinking about building a better mouse.