Move over blind dates, matchmaking services and online dating - the new trend for finding love is pheromone parties.
According to dictionary.com, pheromone means:
noun Animal Behavior . any chemical substance released by an animal that serves to influence the physiology or behavior of other members of the same species.
Partygoers are asked to sleep in a shirt for 3 nights and then put it in a zip-lock bag, freeze it and then bring it to the party. The freezer bags are placed on a table and an index card with a number is put in each bag. Attendees sniff the bags. Once they find one they like, a picture is snapped of the person with the bag and projected on a wall. Then the owner of the item should come forward and love should soon follow.
The problem? Some of the owners are too shy to step forward even when they recognize their bag.
Studies have been conducted into the science behind the smell of attraction.
Research studies using similar T-shirt experiments have shown that people prefer different human scents. But whose smell they prefer is dictated by a set of genes that influence our immune response — which researchers say is nature's way of preventing inbreeding and preserving genetic adaptations developed over time.
"Humans can pick up this incredibly small chemical difference with their noses," said Martha McClintock, founder of the Institute for Mind and Biology at the University of Chicago. "It is like an initial screen."
In one such study, McClintock and her colleagues had participants sniff inside a covered box without knowing that in some cases they were smelling worn T-shirts. What they found was people preferred the odors of those who had different genetic makeups from their own, but not radically different.
What it comes down to is that what smells like love to me may smell like bad news to you, and vice versa. Love is one of the greatest forces in the universe and time after time, it has refused to be boxed, labeled or categorized. When love is ready for you it will find you - so long as you don't try to tie it down, pen it up or define it out of existence.
So what does love mean? It means anything and everything -- with a cherry on top.