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Love Under a Microscope

smooth wombat writes "As today is one of the top five marketing-induced spending days, the obvious question is, what is love? Anthropologist Helen Fisher studied the brain's circuitry and found that the brain sees romantic love as a reward similar to chocolate, money or drugs. Does this mean that the mystery of love is less magical now that science has studied it under the microscope? According to Dr Fisher: 'You can know every ingredient in a piece of chocolate cake, and you still sit down and eat that chocolate cake and it's wonderful,' she said. 'In the same way, you can know all the ingredients of romantic love and still feel that passion.'"

13 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Further developments by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny

    When asked to confirm the above findings by Dr. Haddaway, a pair of scientists dressed in bright purple and blue labcoats nodded furiously, in rhythm.

  2. Love is friendship set on fire by jaymzter · · Score: 4, Funny

    Roses are red
    Violets are blue
    All of my base
    Are belong to you

    --
    If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
    1. Re:Love is friendship set on fire by blue_adept · · Score: 4, Funny

      roses are red,
      violets are blue,
      in soviet russia
      the bases find you

      --

      "Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
  3. Love is by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Love is like a box of chocolates. You sneak one or two before you decide to buy. Then eventually you do buy, take it home and eat them all in one sitting. Finally, your left with your body feeling sick, your wallet feeling light, and holding an empty box.

    --
    Demented But Determined.
    1. Re:Love is by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 3, Funny

      You're not describing love. You're describing getting hookers.

  4. Re:Hmmm by nizo · · Score: 4, Funny
    What if the secret ingredient in that cake is "love"? How do they explain that?

    Time to fire the chef and take the "love" in for DNA testing to prove it belongs to him?

  5. Slashdot Love by biocute · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's like I knew I will get fired one day for reading Slashdot during office hours, I still read it.

    It's like I knew the next story will only be out in 20 minutes, I still hit F5 every second.

    It's like I knew a story is a dupe, I still "read more" and reply to it.

    If this is not true love, what is?

  6. So Food = Love? by Assmasher · · Score: 4, Funny

    We are a very loving nation apparently...

    --
    Loading...
  7. Love under a Microscope by ackthpt · · Score: 2, Funny

    It says in 65nm letters (soon 45nm at Intel)
    Roses are red,
    Violets are blue,
    All my base,
    Are belong to you!
    And some time after I posted this original poem on /., in 2000. ThinkGeek decided to do a shirt on the a variation of it.

    I don't know what to think.

    A later version dedicated to Rob and Kathleen (in 2002) can be found here

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  8. Wrong place by Swamii · · Score: 4, Funny
    Does this mean that the mystery of love is less magical now that science has studied it under the microscope?


    Asking this question on Slashdot is like asking a group of chimpanzees whether they prefer Spanish Red or White Zin.
    --
    Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
  9. Re:Love is a survival trait. by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 2, Funny
    Perhaps ancient societies observed that monogamy seemed to reduce the occurrence of these diseases, and therefore changed their social norms to favor monogamy.

    Since a lot of the STDs seem to involve cold sores, warts, rashes, discharges of disgusting fluids (perhaps blood) from the genital region, if not outright death, I suspect that would tend to encourage finding a mate who had none of these symptoms & trying to stay with them, i.e., otherwise known as monogamy.

  10. Re:there are two types of love by StikyPad · · Score: 4, Funny

    You forgot Love #3: You can't stand each other, but you stay together for the kids, and/or the fact that you can't afford that much alimony and child support taken out of that thing your boss calls a check, but you call a nice down payment on the power bill, and still pay for something to eat once or twice a week. A good day is when you can get up and leave for work early enough that it doesn't have a chance to nag you, and a great day is when you can get home early enough to tie one on before it arrives with some new shoes and, surprise!, her mother. Your step kids call you by your first name, and they hate your real kid, who now also calls you by your first name, just because their dad was smart enough to run while he had the chance. You'd have an affair, but an affair won't have you, and that's probably for the best since you're pretty sure your wife is paying money you don't have for a PI to watch you do things you're not doing, and you can't help but wonder if it's tax deductable. Every second Thursday, on your way to the pharmacy, you hatch a plan to collect a tidy sum from a certain life insurance policy, but then you remember you can't afford life insurance, let alone health insurance, so you crumple up the prescription and decide to take an hour vacation by sitting on a park bench and pretending to be homeless. Ah, love.

  11. Re:In other words: by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 4, Funny
    I keep a bowl of various (e.g. dark, 50% cocao, flavoured: raspberry, orange, &c.)chocolates in my living room. I serve wine with dinner (and I make that dinner high-quality, and a bit fancy). I'll often throw in a massage, with scented oils.

    You are on the right track, young padiwan. Now you must get another person involved.