For centuries, the concept of love has spun the world on its axis. We hear the greatest love stories narrated through time, hoping that our own will be filled with just as much magic and glittering stars. As many have found, the road to love isn't necessarily paved with roses.
It has always been difficult for scientists to find the answer to "love". Some have hypothesised a chemical addiction between two people. The Economist featured an article on the subject of love. Scientists amusingly resorted to spending hours observing the sex life of the vole population. The sacrifices scientists have to make for their art ! :).
"The details of what is going on -- the vole story, as it were -- is a fascinating one. When prairie voles have sex, two hormones called oxytocin and vasopressin are released. If the release of these hormones is blocked, prairie-voles' sex becomes a fleeting affair, like that normally enjoyed by their rakish montane cousins.Conversely, if prairie voles are given an injection of the hormones, but prevented from having sex, they will still form a preference for their chosen partner. In other words, researchers can make prairie voles fall in love -- or whatever the vole equivalent of this is -- with an injection"
Time magazine also has some interesting ideas on love . Throughout history, love has followed a tortuous route. The brief history of love letters demonstrate this. The mode of communication may have changed over the years but the purpose of a love letter remains the same. One of the most famous love letters is from General Napoleon Bonaparte To Citizeness Joséphine Bonaparte:
"A few days ago I thought I loved you; but since I last saw you I feel I love you a thousand times more. All the time I have known you, I adore you more each day; that just shows how wrong was La Bruyére's maxim that love comes all at once. Everything in nature has its own life and different stages of growth. I beg you, let me see some of your faults: be less beautiful, less graceful, less kind, less good..."
With the advent of technology, the world has become a closer network with a higher probability of finding love in the most unexpected places.
The debonair and eligible Amit Srivastava CEO to ArcGeosystems India announced to everyone on Twitter that he believed that online relationships were doomed to failure. Recent research disputes his theory.
"US psychology experts analysed more than 400 public interest surveys and psychology studies on the topic and found that after meeting their partner through friends, most romantic connections are made online.
The 64-page report, commissioned by the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in time for Valentine's Day, will be published in the journal Psychological Science.
It pointed out that while less than one per cent of couples met through the web in the early 90s, digital dating now accounts for around one in three relationships"
Srivastava who is famed for his turbulent marriage to his BlackBerry [ also has an encyclopaedic knowledge of computers. He will be interested to learn that
"According to London's Daily Telegraph, one of the world's first computers wasn't built to crunch numbers -- but to write love letters. In 1952, when scientists wanted to test the capability of Manchester University's Mark One computer, they devised a software program that would have the computer search a database of tender nothings and spit out love verses."
I believe people are often reckless with real love. It has always been something magical, something pure, something unexplainable and something that should never be rebuffed by slashing a fragile heart. True love is also unconditional and has no great expectations. It is for the brave hearts to walk the difficult and tortuous path to prove their undying love. This magical concept of love cannot be demanded; it cannot be seized or imprisoned. It must be allowed to be guided by the stars. Those in love can only hope the starlight will guide the path of their beloved - to clasp their hand - just once or perhaps forever.
For AS - Always and Forever.