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"The Los Angeles Times recently featured an article about the science behind falling in love. Chemical reactions, brain activity, ooh wee, science never sounded so sexy. The story looked a several methods different researchers used to measure love and its chemical reactions in our brains. One scientist in New York performed brain scans on new couples. The scans revealed that &amp;amp;#8220;after that first magical meeting or perfect first date, a complex system in the brain is activated that is essentially &amp;amp;#8216;the same thing that happens when a person takes cocaine.&amp;amp;#8217;&amp;amp;#8221; Holy moly! The study found that dopamine was released when those participating in the study were asked to think of their significant others or shown pictures of them. Larry J. Young, a psychiatry professor explained that the chemical is released in our brains &amp;amp;#8220;&amp;amp;#8217;when you&amp;#x27;re doing something [highly] pleasurable,&amp;amp;#8217; like having sex, doing drugs or eating chocolate.&amp;amp;#8221; But it doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t stop at dopamines my dears. Next up, according to researchers, are oxytocin and vasopressin which are chemicals thought to encourage couples to form an emotional bond when released in the brain. Long periods of intimate contact (hugging, making out, sex, hand holding) causes oxytocin to be released in our brains. This encourages us to bond with one another. Interestingly, it&amp;amp;#8217;s the same chemical that helps mothers bond with their infants. The article shared that vasopressin, another chemical &amp;amp;#8220;has similarly been linked to bonding in men.&amp;amp;#8221; And not to fret if you&amp;#x27;re in a long term relationship, your chemical romance is likely still going strong. Researchers explained that being intimate with your partner, listening and empathizing with them releases even more bonding hormones. It&amp;amp;#8217;s kind of weird to think of our relationships as a series of chemical reactions in our brains, isn&amp;amp;#8217;t it? Often, love and relationships are presented as these ethereal and complex ideas that we can&amp;amp;#8217;t quite put into words. And to see science tackle something considered so poetic feels odd, unfair even. But the researchers&amp;amp;#8217; findings do make quite a bit of sense. What do you guys think? Does this help explain why we feel all &amp;amp;#8220;Crazy in Love&amp;amp;#8221; during a new relationship? Is it weird to think that lovey-dovey swooning might be out of your control? After all, dopamine is strong stuff! Any science buffs out there? I&amp;amp;#8217;d love to hear your take on this! Weird science&amp;amp;#133; * Crazy but true! This woman got pregnant from oral sex. * LOL, check out these wacky things people used to believe about making babies. * Whoops! Have you ever forgot to take our your tampon? More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;#x27;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow Glamour on Twitter. Photo: Jupiter Images.Image used for illustrative purposes only."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2010/02/researchers-examine-the-scienc>