tsk tsk tsk

don't ever forget that media has a way of blowing every single science article written out of context. in fact, they blow a lotta things outta context, which is why i don't exactly believe everything the news gives me anyhow. i doubt reporters really look at articles front to back before they write about it. they teach you these things in college.

b/c we all know how lazy the general public is at actually READING.

now, you probably might've seen the below article, on yahoo tabloids, but below's the actual article.

clicky

now, having read the actual experiment, there's some things to note in typical skeptic fashion:

-this was the 1st experiment(or maybe one of the 1st) done on neurotransmitters on "love." that means to establish that HEY; NGF is related to love is wrong. there's too many factors to consider.

-nationality; note how all the people taken were italians. don't we have a stereotype of italians being lovers? why don't we try chinese or indian people? those people think about jobs like it's sex. i also would like to *humourously* question why italians did this experiment and not chinese and indian scientists.

-small sample population; nuff said.

-also, they mentioned that MOST OF THEIR SUBJECTS WERE FEMALES; WHOOPDEDOO! is it POSSIBLE to think for a second, that men experience much LESS emotional roller coasters during love than women? HMMM?

-age; those who were madly in love were young. so, it is possible to realize that this NGF is only expressed in young people, and possibly tapers off as age progresses.

-the scientists also reason the NGF could spike in stress-related conditions; so it's not really LOVE causing this. that introduces a whole other slew of factors. a measurement of NGF might not be per say a number of how much you're in love, but rather the levels off a skyscraper you free-fell 1 minute ago before opening your parachute.