Exhibition ponders science of mice and men

ROMANTIC LOVE has inspired some of the highest points in human civilisation, but when it comes to choosing a mate we are little different to the animals.

The Science Gallery’s Love Lab exhibition, which opened last night to coincide with St Valentine’s Day on Sunday, aims to show there is a science to attraction and in some respects we display many similarities to mice. Mice have been shown to attract mates who are most dissimilar to them in terms of their immune genes. Though we like to think we are a cut above mice, the results have been shown to be remarkably similar among humans. “There is still scope for individuals who come together through a shared love of the poetry of Pablo Neruda, for instance,” said Trinity College geneticist Dr Aoife McLysaght.

“Individual couples might be different, but there is an emerging trend across large groups of people which is quite startling.”

The researchers are hoping to elicit the public’s help in an experiment involving sweaty T-shirts worn by 30 male volunteers over two nights.

Women will be asked to smell the T-shirts for traces of the pheromone androstenone which is found in male testosterone. It is a strong indicator for certain immune genes. At the same time DNA samples will be taken of both men and women; there should be a correlation between those who find the smell of the T-shirts attractive and those who have different immune genes.

Dr McLysaght said we are still governed by the evolutionary instinct to breed even for those who do not want children. “The logic we have come up with is that you have healthier children this way because if you have a mate who has different immune genes, your children are going to have greater diversity.”

The exhibition will also ponder what makes an attractive person, a sexy voice or a sexy walk. There will be MRI experiments to show the impact of speed dating on the brain and a bed that allows long-distances lovers get in touch.

“We want to make science relevant to everyday life,” said gallery director Michael John Gorman “and also make it sexy – literally so, in this case”.