Science Day #3 - Chemical Romance

John Tierney writes amsuingly in the New York Times about the scientific basis for a love potion - and an anti-love potion.

In the new issue of Nature, the neuroscientist Larry Young offers a grand unified theory of love. After analyzing the brain chemistry of mammalian pair bonding — and, not incidentally, explaining humans’ peculiar erotic fascination with breasts — Dr. Young predicts that it won’t be long before an unscrupulous suitor could sneak a pharmaceutical love potion into your drink.

That’s the bad news. The not-so-bad news is that you may enjoy this potion if you took it knowingly with the right person. But the really good news, as I see it, is that we might reverse-engineer an anti-love potion, a vaccine preventing you from making an infatuated ass of yourself. Although this love vaccine isn’t mentioned in Dr. Young’s essay, when I raised the prospect he agreed it could also be in the offing.

Tierney raises some interesting points about the usefulness of the anti-love drug. But if you ask me, you have to be pretty cynical not enjoy acting like an infatuated ass when you get the chance.