The Science of Love
With the royal wedding this bank holiday, love is in the air here on the Science homepage. We're looking at the science behind falling in love. Like did you know that there are three phases to falling in love? Flushed cheeks and a racing heart beat are some of the outward signs of being on cloud nine, but inside the body there are definite chemical signs that cupid has fired his arrow.
One of the best known researchers in this area is Helen Fisher of Rutgers University. She has proposed that we fall in love in three stages, each one involving a different set of chemicals. Find out more on the stages of love and whether science can help determine whether a relationship will last.
The Science of Flirting
It can take between 90 seconds and four minutes to decide if we fancy someone. But this has little to do with your smooth-talking. As far as attraction goes, a decision is based on many factors. About 55% of our opinion is based on a person's body language, 38% on their tone and speed of voice and only a mere 7% is based on what the person actually says.
Follow our scientific guide on how to help your date go with a bang - and turn into something more serious. Also find out what makes you fancy someone. Research suggests that there are certain things we all look for - even if we don't know it.
Language of Love
If you've never considered searching for a date in the lonely hearts columns, count yourself lucky. It's a jungle out there and that's scientific fact.
Enter the world of lonely hearts and you take a trip back through your evolutionary past, where the veneer of civilisation is stripped away and men and women are slaves to their most basic instincts. The frank vocabulary of the ads illuminates the rules of human mating in the most unambiguous way. For this very reason, lonely hearts may give us a unique insight into the reasons for our sexual preferences - preferences that have been moulded by millions of years of natural selection.
Does Love Drive you Mad?
In 1990, a study in Italy indicated that people who have recently fallen in love have some of the symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. People with OCD behave obsessively about certain things. They might be constantly washing their hands, or need to continually check to see if the door is closed.
Rather than making you happy, love could actually make you depressed. One symptom of OCD appears to be unusually low levels of the neuro-transmitter 'serotonin'. Low levels of serotonin have been associated with anxiety and depression. Italian students who claimed they had recently fallen in love were found to have serotonin levels 40% lower than their peers.