The Science of luuurrrrve

Well what with it soon being Valentines’ day and all, I just couldn’t resist. Whilst doing some research for a uni assignment, I came across a website called Scientificmatch.com – a DNA dating service. It does exactly what it says on the tin – a service that allows you to find a partner by matching your DNA; like match.com but with science thrown into the mix. Some of the selling points include heightened chemistry between a couple i.e. body fragrance etc which would be a much better match and help to create a much more fulfilling and lasting relationship. I can only imagine how annoyed perfume shops would be if this takes off, lol. Another selling point was that if you and your new partner were to have children in the future they would be less disease prone and so forth.

Science has been used to develop numerous things such as improving the world’s food supply via GM foods, producing life saving treatments, IVF and so much more. And now we are able to choose partners that will have compatible DNA. Part of me thinks, great idea – less chance of complications in our children and in a way we would be looking out for a future generations by reducing the risk of illness. But part of me also thinks – oh my god, we’re getting way too ‘frankenstein’ about the whole thing and it is a bit frightening. Test tube babies for example - it feels like we’re interfering with God’s will. But leaving religion aside for a minute and thinking about it from a logical point of view. By interfering with the natural process; we may complicate things further i.e. mutations etc – the full extent of which we still don’t know yet. Also by eliminating disease, it would mean that people would live longer and wouldn’t that increase the burden on our already strained resources? Yet the opposite could also happen. By eliminating disease, we would no longer have a collection of antibodies to fight off disease and so it is possible that a majority of the species could be wiped out by one single illness/ bacterial infection/ virus.

Anyway back to the main point – DNA dating. Do people really buy into this stuff? I wondered how many similar services existed and if people actually used them. Using Google, I found numerous related links and some fantastic taglines that made me giggle. Yes I know… I have way too much time on my hands. But come on, admit it… you know you’ll be googling away as you read this post :)