Looking for ppl to chat w/ a/b Science/Philosophy/Computers etc.

[Zomer Briez]

I love reading science and technology articles and learning new things, especially in the areas of psychology, evolution, genetics/molecular biology and computers. It's hard for me to find other people who want to talk about stuff like this, so I've resorted to the net, especially because other people of my personality type are probably around the computer a lot too.

I enjoy people that say "hey, I learned something cool about _____ today" and discuss it, etc.

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I'll start...
Today I was reading about how people's scent plays a role in attractiveness.

Apparently if someone's body odor smells good to you this means they have many immuno-genes that are dissimilar to your own.

Evolutionarily this makes sense because if you breed with individuals who have a bunch of immuno-genes that you don't have then your offspring will have a larger variety of genes to build your immune system and fight off more diseases.

The article also discusses:

- People in a relationship with scent that indicates very similar immuno-genetics are more likely to cheat on each other and the percentage of genetics similar correlates to a percentage chance of the couple cheating.
- A person with no immuno-genetic similarity is also unattractive (so some has to be the same to be attractive)
- Lesbians like the scent of other lesbians
- Gays like the scent of other gays.
- The homosexual brain reacts to male sent where as a strait male's doesn't
- Strait females more attracted to strait male scent than a gay male's scent.
- While taking birth control/pregnant a woman's scent is less attractive
- While taking birth control/pregnant woman are attracted to people with scent that indicates immuno-genetic similarity (So if you start a relationship while on the pill and like their scent, you may lose your attractiveness for them after you go off the pill)

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[Jennihul]

Cool.

Jennifer

[Mark Lapierre]

Oi! Where's the link to the article! Bad Zomer!

Just kidding. (I assume you're not an official psychology student and thus haven't been hammered by lecturers with how important it is to cite references)

I've seen a similar article before and it struck me as saying very little which is new, apart from the correlation between genes related to immune system function, and scent. The various ways in which people's scents attract other people is nothing new (in the context of the knowledge that study provides). I also hope that this article mentioned something about how attraction is far more complicated than just scents (I don't think the one I read did mention that).

Still, the link between immune system function and scent is interesting stuff!

As for discussing more of this stuff, there's threads here once in a while, so stick around (but be prepared for some far-out, non-scientific opinions/propositions). You could also check out the facebook application called iThink (it's not really for this sort of thing, but the topics you like pop up once in a while).

And to give you something to peruse/consider, check out this account of Clive Wearing's life by Oliver Sacks for some insight into what it's like to have no memory, and not be able to form any new ones!

And check out ScienceBlogs, especially Pharyngula, Evolving Thoughts, and Neurophilosophy. And my blog