kissing

A kiss is not a kiss...

gregladen — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 14:27:16 +0000

A kiss is not a kiss...

The authors of a new paper note that "one of the principal ways in which we interact using our faces is kissing." This reminds me of an old National Lampoon joke on how the French were famous for inventing sex acts with the face. But I digress.

This paper looks at neural imaging responses of subjects who observe, in photographs, various kinds of kissing. The two main variables are who is kissing (by gender) and the nature of the kiss.

One of the authors is my friend and colleague, Sheril Kirshenbaum. She wrote the book on kissing. No, seriously, she wrote this book, which I've reviewed here.

From the abstract of the paper:

With a few exceptions, the literature on face recognition and its neural basis derives from the presentation of single faces. However, in many ecologically typical situations, we see more than one face, in different communicative contexts. ... Although there is no obvious taxonomy of kissing, we kiss in various interpersonal situations (greeting, ceremony, sex), with different goals and partners. Here, we assess the visual cortical responses elicited by viewing different couples kissing with different intents. The study thus lies at the nexus of face recognition, action recognition, and social neuroscience. Magnetoencephalography data were recorded from nine participants in a passive viewing paradigm. We presented images of couples kissing, with the images differing along two dimensions, kiss type and couple type. We quantified event-related field amplitudes and latencies. In each participant, the canonical sequence of event-related fields was observed, including an M100, an M170, and a later M400 response. The earliest two responses were significantly modulated in latency (M100) or amplitude (M170) by the sex composition of the images (with male-male and female-female pairings yielding faster latency M100 and larger amplitude M170 responses). In contrast, kiss type showed no modulation of any brain response. The early cortical-evoked fields that we typically associate with the presentation and analysis of single faces are differentially sensitive to complex social and action information in face pairs that are kissing. The early responses, typically associated with perceptual analysis, exhibit a consistent grouping and suggest a high and rapid sensitivity to the composition of the kissing pairs.

Interesting research, part of the bigger picture of how human perception operates in an important social context. I asked Shiril Kirshenbaum for a quick comment and she told me that one of the most interesting parts of this work is "that usually we think of science writing as something that happens after research or discovery. But here we have a nice example demonstrating that the relationship can go both ways where new science has been driven by the storytelling."

_______________________

A kiss is not a kiss: visually evoked neuromagnetic fields reveal differential sensitivities to brief presentations of kissing couples. 2015. Cogan, Gregory, Sheril Kirshenbaum, Jeffry Walker, and David Poeppel. NeuroReport, August 18, 2015.

gregladen Mon, 08/24/2015 - 10:27

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behavioral biology

kissing

behavioral biology

The Kiss

gregladen — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:19:33 +0000

The Kiss

Valentine’s Day is coming up, so it is time to think about kissing. Pursuant to this, Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of “The Science of Kissing,” has made the Kindle version of her excellent book available at a discounted price through February 18th. The book is here: The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us. (Sheril is also the co-author of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future.)

The Science of Kissing

Further details as well as a video (don’t worry, it’s work safe) are here, on Sheril’s site.

Also pursuant to Valentine’s Day, I thought it appropriate to repost my original review of Sheril’s book which comes with a story about a kiss:

The Kiss

I went out with a friend. We were both between relationships, and we both knew somehow that this was a date though it was never called a date. And we had a perfectly good time: Good food, good conversation, good drinks. She drove.

When it came time to go home, she drove me to the urban neighborhood I lived in and parked on the street near my house. As we were saying our good-byes, she enigmatically unhooked her seat belt. I wondered why. Then, I discovered that she wanted the freedom of movement to lean across the console and give me a kiss. It was a good kiss. It was actually a series of good kisses, and it went on for a while.

And suddenly, there was a loud rapping on the window of the car. We stopped kissing and that’s when we noticed that we had steamed up the windows a bit. So I cracked the window on which the rapping had occurred and there was a policeman staring in with his flashlight.

Now, you have to understand, this is two adults in a car in the city, not teenagers at some remote lover’s lookout in the country side on prom night; this was in a neighborhood where the police never wander around on foot, and certainly never bother the local residents in this manner. Yet, there was the steamy window, the uniformed police officer, and the bright flashlight.

“What can I do for you, officer” I said, thinking, “what is this Joker doing?”

“Ah, sorry to bother you,” realizing he was shining the flashlight in my eyes, diverting it, “I was wondering if you saw anyone coming by here. We’re in pursuit of a burglar.”

I listened for a moment.

“I don’t hear the dog,” I said. “There is no way anyone has been by here, but if I see someone, I’ll call.”

It is said that you never forget your first kiss. I think I might have. But THAT kiss, I will never forget not only because it was a very warm expression of closeness with someone I love and all that stuff, but because of the over the top comic relief associated with it. I mean really: A cop, a flashlight, a rap on the window???? GMAB!

Anyway, that is one of my favorite personal kiss stories. The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us, a new book by Sheril Kirshenbaum has a bunch more about kissing, and is a must read for anyone who wants to try out kissing (you may like it) and keep it scientific.

You would think that kissing is pretty basic. A few different animals seem to do it, and we’ve all seen the pictures of chimps kissing. So, humans have always kissed, and it’s a basic feature of our species and we all do it and it’s kind of wet and messy and what else can you really say about it? But if that is what you are thinking, then you need to do two things: a) get more curious and b) remove your Occidento-normative Western Unthinking Cap and learn yourself some perspective.

Kissing is almost a human universal, but not quite. Not all cultures do this. The history of kissing is complex and interesting, to the extent that we know about it. Kissing may or may not be a signal for quality or ability in relation to other activities such as sex. Men and women seem to “use” kissing for different purposes. Science has something to say about the efficacy of lip-enhancing behaviors such as gloss and colorizing. And did you know that men and women do not necessarily like the same kind of kissing, at least in some contexts?

Sheril’s book is a fun read and there is no way you will not find it informative. Gender issues and sexuality is an interest of mine (as an evolutionary biologist) so I know a lot of this stuff, but I learned a great deal reading her book. And, it made me think.

To me, the most interesting take-home message from Sheril’s book is that kissing is both a fundamental, primordial form of communication involving the deepest limbic and visceral functions and the most basic social negotiations foundational to human existence, and something that any one group of human can simply do entirely without. Sheril documents the heterogeneous nature of kissing historically (and by inference prehistorically) and ethnographically, while at the same time demonstrating the nature and mechanics of kissing as an ethological factor in the kind of social space where one might also find cringing or punching or swearing or yelling or fearing or other visceral activities.

At first, this seems highly enigmatic, but need not be so. What is needed is to draw kissing down to some of it’s more basic components. What is kissing made up of that could be done some other way that does not add up to actual kissing?

Bodily closeness, face-to-face closeness, exchange of scent and sebaceous substances and possibly more bodily fluids, and so on … some subset of what any Middle Schooler would call “Totally eeww factor” … is probably found in every human culture, much like fried bread is found in every culture.¹ There is this list of things humans may do to/with each other in the process of negotiating (or at least playing around with) sex, marriage, or some other reproductive activity or social contract, and one way to piece this all together is with the Inuit muzzle rub, or some other activity, or a kiss.

It is also interesting that the kiss has spread over recent time. I wonder if it was very common at times in the past, fell out of favor, and returned, over and over. I am not necessarily being ridiculous when I imagine that the various behavioral accouterments of closeness would be combined, recombined, spread, forgotten, preferred, prohibited, in a kind of Dawkinsonian “River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (Science Masters Series)” of memes, kind of like baby names, with the kiss being at times the species-dominant behavior except here and there, but at other times, rare and exotic found only on some island or in some isolated mountainous region in Portugal. A Ripley's Special Edition 2016 (Ripley's Believe It Or Not Special Edition) entry from 7,600 BC: “Married residents of a remote valley on the Iberian Peninsula greet by clasping each ether’s lips with their own lips! Believe It Or Not!!!”

I recommend the book. I suggest you consider it as a gift for your mate on his or her birthday. Or, to your mate as a Valentine’s Day gift! Since Amanda was born on Valentine’s day, I get to do both at the same time!

_________________________________
¹Not really. Fried bread is not really found in every culture. See: Every Culture Has a …

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk via Compfight cc

gregladen Tue, 02/05/2013 - 04:19

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Just in Time for Valentine's Day: The Science Behind the Kiss

carlyo — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Just in Time for Valentine's Day: The Science Behind the Kiss

By Larry Bock
Founder and organizer, USA Science & Engineering Festival

It's both funny and remarkable how some of the most simple and natural acts we do each day are teeming in science.

Take for example, the kiss.

A kiss, especially a passionate one, sets off a cascade of emotions and chemical reactions in our brain and body that would surprise most of us if we knew the whole story.

Well, just in time for Valentine's Day, Sheril Kirshenbaum, science writer and author of the recent book, The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us, sheds light on exactly what goes on biologically when we lock lips. Kissing basically "acts like a drug by stimulating the natural chemicals in our bodies, yet unlike other human behaviors, science has barely begun to put kissing under the microscope" to study this intriguing evolutionary behavior," says Sheril, who serves as director of the University of Texas Project on Energy Communication and appeared last year as a speaker at TEDGlobal 2011.

This April, as a featured author at the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo and Book Fair hosted by Lockheed Martin, she'll bring insight into the kiss by discussing her book, answering questions and sharing other information that research is revealing about the science of kissing. But in the meantime, for all you sweethearts out there, here's a timely message from Sheril to take to heart. She writes:

On Valentine's Day, many of us will acknowledge those we love with chocolates, flowers, and cards. But the most meaningful messages will be exchanged without spending a dime: It's kisses that leave the most indelible impression of all.

Our lips are packed with sensitive nerve endings so that even the slightest brush sends a flurry of information to our brains that often feels very good. Although we often don't think of them in this way, our lips are the body's most exposed erogenous zone. When they are involved in a passionate kiss, our blood vessels dilate as our brain receives more oxygen than normal. Our pulse quickens and our breathing can become irregular. Our cheeks flush as our pupils dilate causing many of us to close our eyes. Five of our 12 cranial nerves jump into action as we engage all of OUR senses in interpreting what's going on and anticipating what may happen next.

When there's real chemistry between two individuals, a kiss sparks romance by triggering a cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters that cascade through our bodies and brains. In this manner, locking lips serves as humanity's most intimate experience because it conveys more than our words can possibly express. It's nature's ultimate litmus test telling us when to pursue a deeper connection with someone special or to step back because we're incompatible with a partner. And understanding the science behind how this happens doesn't take any magic out of the moment. Instead, it provides a better understanding and appreciation of our ourselves and our relationships.

Sheril is one of many intriguing authors who will take the public behind the mystery and wonders of science, engineering and technology April 28-29 at the Festival Expo and Book Fair in Washington, D.C. (the nation's largest celebration of science and engineering). This free-of-charge weekend celebration, scheduled for the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, culminates a month-long series of Festival events which will be held nationwide to inspire the next generation of science and technology innovators. The Expo allows kids, their families and others to participate in over 2,500 exciting, interactive activities and see more than 150 live performances by science celebrities, best-selling authors, explorers, innovative entrepreneurs and world-renowned experts.

At the Expo's Book Fair, visitors will get the chance to meet and hear some of the country's most intriguing authors who are regaling readers worldwide through their work. In addition to Sheril Kirshenbaum, these include:

--Astrophysicist and former NASA scientist Jeffrey Bennett who has not only authored best-selling college textbooks in astronomy, astrobiology and mathematics, but is also the author of the award-winning children's books such as, Max Goes to the Moon, Max Goes to Mars and Max Goes to Jupiter.

--Alfredo QuiÃ±ones, esteemed neurosurgeon and neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University, who in his autobiography Becoming Dr. Q, tells the amazing story of how he rose from an impoverished background as an migrant worker to become one of the most renowned physicians in his field.

>--Robin Cook, a physician and Naval officer, whose string of 30 best-selling books include such medically-based works as Coma and The Year of the Intern.

--Harvard physicist Lisa Randall, whose works such as Knocking on Heaven's Door has made her among the most cited and influential theoretical physicists today.

--Former NASA engineer Homer Hickam, whose autobiographical book, Rocket Boys formed the basis of the Hollywood movie October Sky.

--Seymour Simon, whom the New York Times called "the dean of the [children's science] field," and is the author of more than 250 highly acclaimed science books, more than 75 of which have been named Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association.

Experience these and other authors who never let us forget that, like the wonder of a kiss, science is indeed all around us. Join us in April at the Festival!

carlyo Fri, 02/10/2012 - 04:00

Tags

USA Science & Engineering Expo

Valentine's Day

Friday Sprog Blogging: K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

jstemwedel — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:28:58 +0000

Friday Sprog Blogging: K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

On account of Valentine's Day being right around the corner, and inspired by Sheril's almost-through-the-edits book on the science of kissing, I thought I'd ask the Free-Ride offspring (now 8.5 and 10.5 years old) whether they had any questions about kissing that they thought science might be able to answer.

Their initial reaction:

Both offspring in unison: EEEEEEWWWWWW!!!!

Dr. Free-Ride: Wow, I'm pretty sure that's not the reaction Sheril is anticipating for her book.

Younger offspring: Wait, does French kissing count as kissing?

Elder offspring: Yes.

Younger offspring: I wonder if tongue disease was spreaded by kissing.

Dr. Free-Ride: What's tongue disease?

Younger offspring: It's a disease that's made by your tongue.

Elder offspring: Maybe [younger offspring] means kissing disease.

Dr. Free-Ride: OK, but what's kissing disease?

Elder offspring: Is it a disease spread by French kissing?

Dr. Free-Ride: While I'm not denying that tongue to tongue contact might be an effective way to spread germs --

Both offspring in unison: EEEEEEWWWWWW!!!!

Dr. Free-Ride: -- there are plenty of ways to spread germs even by kissing with no tongue. Heck, you know you can spread germs even without kissing. If you have germy hands, a handshake might be enough.

Younger offspring: But are there some germs kissing spreads better?

Dr. Free-Ride: That strikes me as a good scientific question. So how would you study the question of whether kissing actually transmits diseases?

Elder offspring: You'd need to have tests with people who have the disease and people who don't have the disease.

Dr. Free-Ride: Say more. What kind of tests?

Elder offspring: Some people who have the disease would kiss someone else and other people who have the disease to talk to someone else. Then you see whether kissing transmits the disease better than touching or just being close to someone else.

Dr. Free-Ride: Interesting. Any other questions about kissing?

Younger offspring: Why do animals kiss? And why do humans kiss?

Elder offspring: What causes humans and animals to kiss?

Dr. Free-Ride: So what kind of science do you think might be useful in answering those questions?

Younger offspring: Emotion science.

Dr. Free-Ride: Do you mean psychology or do you mean something more about brain chemistry?

Elder offspring: Both. What the brain is doing and how you're behaving.

Dr. Free-Ride: Do you think there's a social component to why we kiss, too? That's it's not just brain chemicals or instinct or whatever?

Elder offspring: Yeah.

Dr. Free-Ride: Do you think animals are doing the same thing humans do when they kiss?

Elder offspring: Yes.

Dr. Free-Ride: Do you think it means the same thing to animals when they kiss as it does to humans?

Elder offspring: Yes, I think so.

Dr. Free-Ride: How could scientists work that out?

Elder offspring: Well, they'd have to look at how their brains work and what they're thinking when they kiss.

Dr. Free-Ride: Hmmm. This presents kind of a problem, doesn't it?

Elder offspring: What?

Dr. Free-Ride: Well, when scientists are doing research with human subjects, how to they figure out what those subjects are thinking?

Elder offspring: The scientists ask, and the human subjects can tell them what they're thinking.

Dr. Free-Ride: Right, but given that, with very few exceptions, animals are non-linguistic, that approach isn't going to work.

Elder offspring: Maybe the scientists can videotape them.

Dr. Free-Ride: Sure, but videotape can suggests that animals are doing things that aren't quite what they were actually doing. Like cats playing keyboards.

Elder offspring: Hmmm.

Dr. Free-Ride: Any other questions about kissing, or thoughts about ways science could answer them?

Elder offspring: Not right now?

Dr. Free-Ride: You're really going to leave me hanging?

Elder offspring: Yes, I always appreciate a cliff hanger.

Dr. Free-Ride: Is it just that you're less curious about kissing than other things?

Elder offspring: Yes, sort of.

Dr. Free-Ride: Do you reckon that'll ever change?

Elder offspring: Maybe.

jstemwedel Fri, 02/12/2010 - 07:28

Tags

Waidaminnit.

Animals (apart from human) kiss?

Just wait a few years when they discover sexual attraction be it opposite or same sex. Then the attitude on kissing will do a 180 degree turn.

I'm so proud: The Elder already has a grasp of Koch's Postulates!

Tell me you are not teaching them that 'psychology' studies something distinct from'brain chemistry' !

Who, me?

/Quickly stuffs the Descartes under a couch cushion.

There's the kissing gourami. Perhaps interestingly, it's only the males that kiss each other, and they do it as a competition for dominance, kind of like locking horns.

While your fifth blogiversary post didn't really stick in my head, noting that the sprogs are now 10.5 and 8.5 really struck me. I have been reading your blog for a long time now. At some point, I'm going to run into your family in the street (I teach at a middle school near-ish to SJSU) and you're all going to awkwardly hurry away because I'm going to start talking to you guys like I've been your friend for five years.

"Hey! Remember those silk worms? Those were awesome!"

This is great! You have pretty spectacular kids there...

I've been hearing a lot lately about the science of kissing--that we're testing/tasting each-other's chemistry and such. I've always been skeptical because, as I understand it, there are a lot of cultures that don't kiss, or that kiss differently. It seems like there's a whole lot of very careful subconscious testing that would have to go on, and for a subtle thing like that to develop I'd want some real evolutionary hand-holds, and I would imagine that would involve relatively conserved behavior. Am I wrong?

Oh, and of course psychology and brain chemistry are different. For a lot of reasons, but the most basic is the same reason that quantum mechanics and cell biology are different.

Dave's right. Brain structure's at least as important as brain chemistry.

Harry Potter and the Magical Kiss

grrlscientist — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:59:41 +0000

Harry Potter and the Magical Kiss

tags: Harry Potter, kiss, Harry Potter and the Magical Kiss, online poll, fun

Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) kissed by Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall)
World Premiere of Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince at the Empire Leicester Square cinema, London, England.

Image: WENN.com

Kiss kiss, kiss: it seems that everyone is thinking about kissy-face (snogging as the Brits say) -- and Harry Potter. In fact, after reading all those skanky tabloids, I've learned that Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) is an excellent kisser while Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) could use some further instruction in this area. On the other hand, the kissing abilities remain unreported for the young women who are characters in the Harry Potter films. Hrm. Are women the only people who "Kiss and Tell"?

Anyway, since I am eagerly anticipating the premier of the next Harry Potter film (even though I live in NYC, I've had my tix for the premier in Helsinki for weeks now), and I am just as susceptible to general silliness as the next person, I had to design a little poll for us to have some harmless fun with. The question: Which Harry Potter characters would you most like to see kiss?

I am not limiting this poll to kisses that "actually" take place in the books. Instead, I am including all those other potential kissing events that I had hoped would happen as well. You can choose more than one answer per response but you are limited to only one poll response per day, so you have to return each day to stack the vote for your favorites. The poll is below the jump and I'll add it to my sidebar to prolong our fun (hopefully I won't break my blog in the process), but if you wish to add comments regarding your Harry Potter "kiss wish list", please feel free to add them here (I may not read all the comments at the polling page)! Moochas smoochas, everyone!

grrlscientist Thu, 07/09/2009 - 22:59

Tags

harry potter

kissing

online poll

What - no choices like "Harry and Hagrid"? How about the "familiars"?

Harry and Hagrid both like the grrls -- you know this!

... like the grrls -- you know this!
Yeah, I know, I know. But Harry and Draco would still be teh hot!

First - I love that I mostly follow you for your science news but that you throw in fun stuff like Harry Potter (which I'm also a HUGE fan of). Definitely makes it worth regular reading.

Second - I wanted to thank you, because we've been looking for a free, simple way to put a poll on our website (we're having a coolest scientist ever tournament!) and hadn't found anything quite right yet, and the service you used was perfect for us.

Hope you're having lots of fun on your trip!

I think Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore would have been a good one to throw in

I think Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore would have been a good one to throw in

If only Dumbledore weren't gay (though maybe he was bisexual).

And where are all the slash options?

What, no Voldemort and Bellatrix?

I a such a fan of harry potter i would love soooo much to star well not star thats harrys job ya know like be a charikter in it but not just a backround person like one that harry actually talks to yeah that would be sooo cool i am like his biggest fan i know all the spells well most of them i know winggardimg leveoser sorry i dont know how to spell it the flying one uchio and all of those sort of ones.

sorry i forgotte to say that im only a kid im eleven nextg year im 12

Science Of Kissing

sheril — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:20:13 +0000

Science Of Kissing

It's February once again, just a week away from that very special holiday in which we celebrate the one we love (or bemoan the greeting card industry). Last year, I composed a post called The Science of Kissing provoking all sorts of interesting discussions on and offline. Now that I'm about to participate in the upcoming AAAS symposium of the same title, let's talk osculation (the scientific term for kissing). Here's the original entry...

I expect most of us hope to experience the 'ever-elusive, out-of-the-ballpark-home-run, earth-shattering, perfect kiss,' but what exactly is it? How does it happen? Wait a sec, this is ScienceBlogs for goodness sake, so let's dissect this one carefully and get down to exploring the science of kissing...

Why do we kiss? It's one of the most intimate expressions between two people, inspiring all forms of art from music to painting to literature. It's arguably shaped history and legend.

And sure, kissing feels completely natural, but is it instinctive? Given up to ten percent of humanity doesn't even touch lips, should we accept it's actually a cultural phenomenon? I'm not convinced. You see, kissing undoubtedly allows us to find out all sorts of information about our partner. We're exchanging pheromones. In fact, when we're engaged, our bodies release a cocktail of chemicals related to social bonding, stress level, motivation, and sexual stimulation. We become, in effect, 'under the influence.' It's powerful.

The right kiss boosts feelings of euphoria stimulating pleasure centers in the brain leading me to suspect there's something to kissing that goes beyond social mores. While it may have evolved from primates feeding their babies mouth-to-mouth (I know, how terribly unromantic!), other scientists suggest it's crucial to the evolutionary process of mate selection.

Ever notice the way a bad first kiss can stop a relationship cold? It may very well be a subconscious cue that a pair is not well suited to produce offspring.

Still, for anyone who's experienced the right chemistry... well... you know. That special and rare kind of kiss makes you weak in the knees and sends your heart racing. And once in a while, if you're very lucky, there's that magical kiss that makes the rest of the world fade away...

So as the science goes, I don't think we'll ever quite figure out the rationale behind the perfect kiss. And thing is, we don't need to. Call me a romantic, but I have to admit I like that when you experience one such ephemeral moment, the feeling defies explanation.

sheril Fri, 02/06/2009 - 04:20

Tags

Sheril,

Do you have occasion to play tonsil hockey very often? :-)

How about kissing being a good evolutionary trick for swapping diverse germs and conferring better immunity? Any thoughts on that?

As an undergrad, I did a lot of research in this area, mostly Friday and Saturday nights. Although my target sample was large, the pool was small, although I found it expanded enormously when random doses of stimuli such as alchohal were applied liberally.

Unfortunately my current wife will not allow any further outlier testing in this area, even though I have tried to explain about proper sampling size. However, if there is grant money available for further research, please let me know.

Kissing doesn't exist, it's just a liberal conspiracy. At least that's what I think cause I haven't had a kiss for a long, long time. *sob*

What about holding hands? Lots of germs get on hands. There's a way to check out immunity. Is romantic kissing cross-cultural?

Slightly on topic, but the latest XKCD is very romantic in its own way.

Ashutosh and Lilian are onto something with germs. Kissing means swapping all sorts of bacteria and mucous that can have both positive and negative effects.

...when you experience one such ephemeral moment, the feeling defies explanation.

Come on, Sheril, you're a scientist, and you know that's not true. Sure, it's a nice feeling to think that nothing could explain the magic of the moment, but even feelings have natural explanations.

I'm not trying to throw a wet towel on your romanticism - heck, I cry regularly during Frank Capra movies - but a blog about science should not even hint that seeking real answers is ever the wrong thing to do.

Which Harry Potter characters do you most wish would kiss?
	Harry and Hermione
	Harry and Luna
	Harry and Cho
	Harry and Ginny
	Hermione and Viktor
	Hermione and Neville
	Hermione and Ron
	Hermione and Draco
	Ron and Lavender
	Neville and Luna
	Hagrid and Olympe
	Lupin and Tonks
	Ginny and Arnold the Pygmy Puff
	Filch and Mrs. Norris
	Dobby and Winky

free polls