"Biologists may soon be able to reduce certain mental states associated with love to a biochemical chain of events," Larry Young, of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, wrote in the journal Nature.

His study of prairie voles has shown that a quick dose of the right hormone can drastically alter relationships.

The cute rodents are a good model for human relationships, Young said. Unlike many other animals, they form lifelong pairs and raise their young together.

But this behavior is easy to change, Young says.

"It's a chemical reaction. At least in voles we know that if you take a female and place her with a male and infuse her brain with oxytocin, she will quickly bond with that male," he said in a telephone interview.

Taking away her natural levels of oxytocin -- a hormone involved in labor, nursing and social bonding -- means she will reject a male as a mate no matter how many times she physically copulates with him.

"Experiments have shown that a nasal squirt of oxytocin enhances trust and tunes people into others' emotions," Young wrote in the Nature article.

(Reuters)

There are already human products on the market that sell themselves as either sexual or social pheromones, as well as products with oxytocin. The pheromone industry is, however, tainted with a slight whiff of quackery due to the lack of published research on humans. I'm not sure why this should be, unless researchers are concerned about the effects of these chemicals on their human subjects. The general public has fewer scruples, so it is easy to find groups that are self-experimenting without waiting for any academic sanctioning.

The more research is done on humans (and animals too) the more machine-like we become. It may be a very complex machine, but a machine nevertheless. With so many systems running on automatic, with no interference or even awareness from our conscious mind, it is little wonder we think many aspects of life mysterious. But in the end its all chemistry and physics.

So will there be a time when it is considered normal to enhance ourselves artificially? We are already at the beginnings of this, but without any real debate. Is taking conscious control of autonomic systems a recipe for disaster or the road to freedom and happiness?

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