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Possible Love Molecule?
aychamo writes "Psychiatrists from Pavia University have associated early romantic love with a biochemical known as nerve growth factor (NGF). Apparently, levels of NGF in the bloodstream were significantly higher in subjects who were in the early stages of romance than individuals not in a relationship. Interestingly, "subjects in love who--after 12-24 months--maintained the same relationship but were no longer in the same mental state to which they had referred during the initial evaluation" did not have elevated NGF levels."
perhaps this is what tipped cupid's arrows?
maybe it could be a real dating service... pay to have someone fall for you via remote administration of this love chemical.
Strangeness from the wiki:
... e ... cule of love - apologies to Lou Reed
... Growth ... Factor ... Growth ... Factor ... Growth ... Factor - J Lennon
... needs now ... is N ... G F - Burt B
Nerve growth factor (NGF), the prototypical growth factor, is a protein secreted by a neuron's target.
Researchers at the University of Florida at Gainesville have discovered that wounds bathed in NGF healed twice as fast as untreated and unlicked wounds. NGF is found in the saliva of mice. NGF has not been found in human saliva.
- end wiki quote begin late night music free association
molecule of love, molecule of love
mol
You can squeeze my molecule till the juice run down by brain - R Johnson
Nerve
Nerve
Nerve
What the world
I'll stop now.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
I'm not trying to sound like a smartass - and I really think this is a neat discovery, to isolate an associated molecule, perhaps - but did anyone with a serious biology background really believe that a neurally modulated social interaction that had obvious and enduring systemic physiological effects *wasn't* associated with circulating factors or hormones?
I mean, there's a systemic effect that's present for a limited duration. I'm not trying to "ruin love", but why should it have worked any differently?
( Read More... | of 2 comments | science.slashdot.org )
Yeah, no kidding, "finding out" that love might be just another biological response is almost as bad as George Lucas pulling the whole "midichlorian" concept out to explain how jedis get their powers! Yech!
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
From the cursory look provided by the artice, this seems like horrible science, and something more likely to be 'reported' around the first or second week of february.
There was no study of the 'affected' people who fell madly in love to determine if this chemical was in their blood before they fell in love. There is just as likely a possibility that those people had the chemical in their blood the whole time. In this case, love is the result of the higher presence of the chemical, and not the cause. This study does nothing to say that this is not the case. In other words, it answered nothing. It only measured the presence of this chemical and then made a 'hypothesis' which was used as the 'result' of the study... embarassing
repeat after me, "Correlation does not imply causality". Why is this a hard concept for people to accept? It should be the wall being banged on until it falls when such an occurance comes up, but instead it is used as the easy answer to all to many 'studies'.
Well, the levels rise, but are they the source of the feeling or more like effect of it?
Tell me why the stars do shine
Tell me why the ivy twines
Tell me why the sky's so blue
and I'll 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.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Research links high blood-content levels of the molecule NGF (nerve growth factor) to frequent delusions or hallucinations, impaired judgment, and a strange speech defect known only as "infantilation," characterized by--among other things--the inability to pronounce the consonants /l/ or /r/.
Researchers disagree on the exact effects of the dangerous compound, but have all stressed its perception altering characteristics, and have pushed strongly for stricter FDA standards concerning amounts found in consumer products. Hallmark, for example, would be required to either blow up its card factory or allow warning labels on every card.
/. is what happens when geeks talk. get used to it.
"Nerve Growth Factor"? Bullshit. More like "New Girl Friend". Pork like bunnies till it hurts too much.
Does the chemical produce the feeling of love, or does feeling in love produce the chemical? Anyone want to donate their brain to science? You'll get it back...I promise.
4chan's /b/ boards are... ---> thataway...
i know if we love each other, a lot of period maintained by both. the ngf make sense, tell us why most of lover in 1 years.
You insensitive clods! I thought my relationship was meaningful and deep now its just some chemical that will be gone after a year!
Did you not read the article at all? You should probably be giving her some Nerve Growth Factor.
If that doesn't work, give her a copy of Blast Corps.
My guess is that it is more likely to be an effect. All biochemical and biophysical regulations in human body are done by brain (at least for those, who has it): blood pressure, adrenaline level etc. By regulating this parameters brain tells body to be more alert, more calm, move faster etc. For example, when you are scared, brain signals "more adrenaline" and heart starts beating faster => you can move (run away) faster. The same with this hormones: brain decides that someone is an appropriate sexual object and body starts producing appropriate hormones. So the question we have to ask now is "What this hormones are doing to our body, what exactly are they good for?"(except, you know, switching off brains and switching on genitals)
May Peace Prevail On Earth
I can see the infomercials right now, "Billy Mays here. I've got this great product to tell you about. Love juice, it's freshly juiced daily... from rats."
For the first few months the molecule proliferates throughout the body as NGF phase 1, also known as the "New Girl Friend" molecule. After a set period of time, it transmutes into NGF phase 2, known as "Noticably Getting Fatter". This phase change causes a dramatic decrease in the desire to have sexual intercourse and initiate conversations, eventually leading to the end of the relationship.
The cycle may then begin a new with a new parter.
If I were on the research team, my next step would be to inject cool single women with NGF and do long informal interviews to figure out what happens. Maybe there'd also be wine. You know, for science!
That's absolutely fabulous. Now they can develop an antidote and add it to the drinking water like fourine...
Why does Slashduh keep insisting on trying to report on the life sciences when it (the editors and story submitters) are so obviously clueless about the topic?
To begin with, why the fuck is there a link to totally idiotic misinterpretations in the popular mainstream media instead of a link to an abstract of the original article in Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology?
Needless to say, the Yahoo!/Reuters article was awful.
"The powerful emotions that bowl over new lovers are triggered by a molecule known as nerve growth factor (NGF), according to Pavia University researchers."
No! The researchers said no such thing at all!
They said that they have shown that there's a high plasma level of NGF in subjects who have recently fallen in love. That is all, and it's not surprising or ground breaking. We already know that love (and other emotions) are associated with varying levels of growth factors in general and neurotrophins in particular, along with a host of other changes in our chemistry. For example, here is a study showing that kissing affects immune responses by way of NGF. NGF is no "love molecule" any more than it is a "stress molecule" or a "healing molecule". NGF does not cause love or kissing! Quit being sensationalistic retards!
Slashdot supposedly reports "news for nerds, stuff that matters". Then why is it OK to report laymen's misconceptions about "love molecules", when it would be unacceptable to propagate e.g. laymen's misconceptions in the mainstream media about "hackers", or calling a harddisk a "virus device" (only because it can also store computer viruses)?
Why is it OK to post biology news from Yahoo! instead of from the original source, when a submission containing just as vague, dumbed down and incorrect news from Yahoo! about e.g. the Linux kernel would never get published here (other than for comedic effect)?
I humbly suggest that Slashduh should quit reporting on other sciences than technology. You'll obviously never get it right or even know what actually is the stuff that matters in those news.
Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
Nature makes sure that a couple stays at least paired up for the time until the mother has fully recovered from birth.
;-)
That's a relic from (wo)mens eary days, with no birth control and morale in society: you fall in love, have sex, have a child. Thats how nature intended it.
Not that it isn't uncool, that there is a special molecule involved
"Love Molecule" is something really insulting to say about someone's manhood
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
It's not you, it's my Nerve Growth Factor! We can still be friends, right?
Demented But Determined.
You know this would never fly, and the reason is simple.
Look how much violence gets on US tv, and what happens? A little muttering about violence, and then more violence. But just watch Janet Jackson's nipple show on TV, and watch the fan REALLY turn dripping brown.
If we were to drop the love bomb on a rioting crowd, it just might work effectively. Then there might be that REAL crisis, public nudity and some of them might even *gasp* have sexual intercourse.
Remember, this is the same society that is considering witholding a vaccine for papiloma virus (a major cause of cervical cancer) because they're concerned that it might encourage promiscuity.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Being an interested layman, I don't want to read junk science anymore than you, a scientist, want the public to be dog-ignorant. Slashdot is Slashdot, it's arse for trustworthy info, but often interesting for comments. Rather than trying to reform the incorrigible, why not get together with a few other like minded scientists and start publishing your own competitor Slashdot-style blog of "genuinely interesting but real and undistorted science news"? I'm sure there's plenty of it out there to be told.
Drugs that help prevent feelings of love for a partner would be extremely useful at rape crisis centers and battered women's shelters, as you could use them to help keep the girl from going back to the jerk.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
From my (admittedly brief) glance at this, it would seem to indicate this increase in NGF could just as easily be a result of the relationship, rather than a cause- sort of a "love makes your nerves grow" sort of thing.
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I'm even willing to do the testing myself. All I need is:
* Siringes (5cc, 10cc, 50cc - just in case)
* 1 truckload of NGF
* around 1000 georgeous women (more is always better with statistics)
* some privacy while conducting the experiments.
*Please* let me sacrifice my life for science!
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
... Beer Atoms !
Is there an opposite effect like a NGF killer protein responsible for modulating behavior in humans in the absence of love? Does that mean that people going through divorce, love lost, heartbroken or the Thrill is Gone are equally biologically driven by some whigged-out molecule?
"Hug me till you drug me, honey; Kiss me till I'm in a coma; Hug me, honey, snuggly bunny; Love's as good as soma."
Yeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!
You darned commie liberals with your anti-God science. You're hot darn diggity dog gonna ruin every All American Holywood storyline and put a mult-eye-billion dollar industry out a busness.
There should be a federal law against that kind a talk.
Git ta Gitmo you commie liberal athiest muslim terrorist scum sucker gay faggot.
Time for my pills...
Stick Men
It seems likely that it would be an advantage to have a mechanism to encourage long term memory building during such a time, as falling in love does represent a major permanant change in ones day to day life, and one would do well to learn as much as possible during that time. I'm not saying I am aware of a link between NGF and mamory creation or retention, just that it would make sense.
Mix this in with Viagra and let the games begin!