The Science of Love

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Posted by michael on Saturday February 14, 2004 @08:03AM from the gonna-have-to-face-it-you're-addicted-to-love dept.

Xyde writes "Economist.com has a story just in time for Valentine's day called 'The Science of Love'. Presumably the difference between love and lust is little more than a bunch of chemicals, which can be controlled with injections (in voles anyway). Quite an interesting read."

27 of 315 comments (clear)

No thank you! by Dutchmaan · 2004-02-14 08:05 · Score: 5, Funny

I don't know about you.. but you won't catch me going to any doctor asking for a love injection!
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2004-02-14 08:05 · Score: 5, Funny

Comment removed based on user account deletion
Ah, valentines day. by sparklingfruit · 2004-02-14 08:07 · Score: 5, Funny

The one day of the year where I am not the tarket market.

Love injection? No need. Attractiveness injection? Now there's a seller.
Do it yourself by Lucky+Kevin · 2004-02-14 08:08 · Score: 5, Funny

But don't all guys give love injections?

--
Kevin
"It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in" O. Nash
Utah by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-14 08:09 · Score: 5, Funny

As Dr Fisher explains, "you can feel deep attachment for a long-term spouse, while you feel romantic love for someone else, while you feel the sex drive in situations unrelated to either partner." This independence means it is possible to love more than one person at a time, a situation that leads to jealousy, adultery and divorce--though also to the possibilities of promiscuity and polygamy, with the likelihood of extra children, and thus a bigger stake in the genetic future, that those behaviours bring. As Dr Fisher observes, "We were not built to be happy but to reproduce."

Ah, that explains politics in Utah.
Great news. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-14 08:11 · Score: 5, Funny

Injections cause love? This is great news! Finally I can love my abductor, Conner, who's keeping me in his basement.
1. Re:Great news. by t_allardyce · 2004-02-14 09:14 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Hes keeping you in his basement with a net connection? You rekon he could kidnap me too?
  
  --
  This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
just in time by elcausado · 2004-02-14 08:11 · Score: 5, Funny

...has a story just in time for Valentine's day called...

Its amazing how research these days has such a superb sense of timing. ;-)

--
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I believe in freedom of thought. I have no other choice.
A poem. by SharpFang · 2004-02-14 08:12 · Score: 5, Funny

Found in fortune file.

Tell me why the stars do shine
Tell me why the ivy twines
Tell me why the sky's so blue
And I will tell you why I love you.

Nuclear fusion makes stars to shine
Phototropism makes ivy twine
Rayleigh Scattering makes sky so blue
Sexual hormones are why I love you.

--
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I find it kind of frightening by drinkypoo · 2004-02-14 08:12 · Score: 5, Funny

How long before some conservative mad scientist :) releases a retrovirus which makes us all pair-bond for life, inescapably? If I were still with my first love, I'd have to fucking kill myself now.

--
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
1. Re:I find it kind of frightening by sadomikeyism · 2004-02-14 10:09 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Now we are going to see the radical political groups engage in biowarfare, releasing cold viruses that compete against each other, turning the population gay one week, straight the next, and so on.
  If God is Love, and a scientist can give it or take it away, does this mean the scientist is playing God, or IS God????
  
  --
  "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves
The difference between love and lust ... by gunix · 2004-02-14 08:12 · Score: 5, Funny

Well, this axiom holds...

Attraction = Lust + i*Love

Lust is the "real" part, and "Love" is the imaginary part.

--
Evolution of Language Through The Ages: 6000 BC : ungh, grrf, booga 2000 AD : grep, awk, sed
1. Re:The difference between love and lust ... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-14 08:26 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  No wonder attraction is so complex!
2. Re:The difference between love and lust ... by bersl2 · 2004-02-14 08:35 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  By this equation,
  e ^ (0 + i(pi)) = -1
  which proves that love is detrimental.
3. Re:The difference between love and lust ... by cavac · 2004-02-14 12:37 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  You could also formulate
  L = (BSTG / BSGF) ^ (BE / DV) * (NS + 1)
  
  Where L is the Lust you currently feel, BSTG the the Bra size of your target, BSGF is MAX_BREASTSIZE(girlfriends) you already have, BE is the number of Beers you already drank, NS is the number of months you've had no sex and DV is the number of divorces you had been through.
  
  As you can clearly see, Beer (or other alcohololic drinks) and divorces have the highest influence. But as shown in the next formula, alcohol may also have a bad side effect:
  
  AS = (V + 1) * L / (B + 1) ^ 3
  
  AS is the ability to have sex, L is the lust and B is the number of Beers you had (which is very likely more than in the first formula). V is the number of Viagra's you took. You see, the more you drink, the more V you must swallow - although i'd recommend against V when you drunk B for reasons of SF (the survival factor of that night) because:
  
  SF = (100 - AG / B ^ V) * RN
  
  Where SF is your survival factor, AG is your age, B the Beers, V the Viagras and RN a boolean (0 or 1) to remember your spouse's name the morning after...
  
  Therefore everyone claiming that having one-night-stands is easy isn't either
  a) drinking alcohol
  b) a good mathematician
  c) or just plain lucky so far
  
  Greetings from the statictical front
  Rene
  
  --
  Look, this thing is totally safe! Built it myself, you know. You just press that button like this and then turn that lev
Why on earth would I want . . . by kfg · 2004-02-14 08:14 · Score: 5, Funny

an enamored vole following me around?

KFG
1. Re:Why on earth would I want . . . by Scrameustache · 2004-02-14 08:51 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  an enamored vole following me around?
  
  Enamored vole: The self-propelled snack!
  
  --
  You can't take the sky from me...
Do these injections... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-14 08:15 · Score: 5, Funny

...have to be administered directly to the cardiac muscle? If so, that would explain Cupid's strange behavior.
Strategy B by Tablizer · 2004-02-14 08:17 · Score: 5, Funny

Me: "Boss, please don't send my job to India."

[Poke!]

Boss: "Oww! What was that?.....Don't worry darling, you are safe with me."

--
Table-ized A.I.
Screw love by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-14 08:18 · Score: 5, Funny

I rather see an article on the science of casual sex.
Some great new spam! by simcop2387 · 2004-02-14 08:23 · Score: 5, Funny

(i am not trolling i don't think)

Are you one of the 80% of men who has a lower than average ability to get your partner to fall in love? Well boy do we have a product for you! Liagra! With Liagra you can finally get both your secretary and your wife to love you and each other!! only 6 easy payments of $49.95!

i wonder how long before we see this
er... by xankar · 2004-02-14 08:24 · Score: 5, Funny

wait, i thought beer was already invented.

--
~To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. -Yann Martel
The ultimate love chemical.... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-14 08:28 · Score: 5, Funny

...Is the ink they print money with.
The heck with injections by ackthpt · 2004-02-14 08:32 · Score: 5, Funny

Q: What's the difference between a dog and a fox?
A: A sixpack.
"Alcohol: Helping men get sex for thousands of years."

--

A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Re:Maybe too far.. by Planesdragon · 2004-02-14 09:38 · Score: 3, Funny

I'm stoked that I understand that lightning is a result of static, and not God striking down his wrath...

Maybe you would be even more stoked if you understood that lightning is a result of differential charges between clouds and the surface, not the clouds and the surface rubbing up against each other.

Oh, and the lightning bolt itself isn't God's wrath. God's wrath is when a bolt 'randomly' hits YOU.
In related news by KrackHouse · 2004-02-14 12:37 · Score: 5, Funny

Breast milk kegger at my place, bring leather pants and an open mind. Later, Vitamin D

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Re:I gotta challenge this one by StarsAreAlsoFire · 2004-02-14 18:38 · Score: 4, Funny

Yup. Sounds like crack to me. ;~)