Tales of significance

In this experiment, the authors were interested in testing the effect of a small molecule inhibitor on the ratio of males and females in the offspring of their model Dipteran species. The authors report that in a wild-type population, ~50 % of offspring are male. They then test the effect of treating females with the chemical, which they think might affect the male:female ratio compared with the untreated group. They claim that there is a statistically significant increase in the percentage of males produced and conclude that the drug affects sex ratios.