What do scientists have against romance?

Why must they always try to ruin the magic with icky sciency stuff? Now, scientists are pushing a hypothesis that promotes the idea that the reason humans kiss – or, more accurately, the reason kissing feels good, why it is a seemingly intrinsic part of human nature – is … germs. (More specifically, one germ.) Romantic, eh?

[Scientists] say the gesture allows a bug named Cytomegalovirus, which is dangerous in pregnancy, to be passed from man to woman to give her time to build up protection against it.

The bug is found in saliva and normally causes no problems. But it can be extremely dangerous if caught while pregnant and can kill unborn babies or cause birth defects.

Writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, researcher Dr Colin Hendrie from the University of Leeds, said: "Female inoculation with a specific male's cytomegalovirus is most efficiently achieved through mouth-to-mouth contact and saliva exchange, particularly where the flow of saliva is from the male to the typically shorter female."

Kissing the same person for about six months provides the best protection, he added.

As the relationships progresses and the kisses become more passionate, the woman's immunity builds up, cutting her odds of becoming ill.

Yeah, that’s definitely gonna increase my chances of ever kissing a girl. “Hey, baby, wanna get inoculated against cytomegalovirus? It’ll be good for your eventual baby(s)!” Maybe for incredibly dorky, family-oriented biologist chicks, perhaps …

It does sound like a very loose hypothesis to me, but then again, the idea that organisms change shape and size over time also probably sounded silly until we started gathering shitloads of evidence to demonstrate it’s true. So, who knows?

Too bad for the Eskimos, though. And others who don’t experience the pleasures of meeting lips.

(via Blag Hag)
Technorati tags: kissing · biology · human behavior · human nature · microbes · cytomegalovirus