Meet The Real 40-Year-Old Virgins

From New Scientist:

Contrary to Hollywood notions, the 40-year-old virgin is not an awkward yet funny and endearing electronics salesman played by Steve Carell.

He is a church-going teetotaller who has neither been to jail nor served in the military, according to a new survey of more than 7000 people. He also represents an estimated 1.1 million American men and 800,000 women aged 25 to 45 who have never had sex.

The study, led by urologist Michael Eisenberg of the University of California, San Francisco, will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

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Six Things Science Has Revealed About The Female Orgasm

From The New Scientist:

This week we report on the continuing debate about female ejaculation: is it real, and if so why does it happen?

See Everything you always wanted to know about female ejaculation (but were afraid to ask)

Ejaculation is just one of the aspects of female sexuality that are being demystified by research. In particular, the female orgasm, the subject of so many myths and folk beliefs, is gradually being understood.

Following some intense field research, here are some of the key facts about the female orgasm, as revealed by modern science.

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Obsession With Naked Women Dates Back 35,000 Years

Side and front views of the Venus of Hohle Fels. Credit: H. Jensen; Copyright University of Tubingen

From Live Science:

If human culture seems obsessed with sex lately, it's nothing new. Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known artistic representation of a woman — a carved ivory statue of a naked female, dating from 35,000 years ago.

The figurine, unearthed in September 2008 in Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, may be the oldest known example of figurative art, meaning art that is supposed to represent and resemble a real person, animal or object. The discovery could help scientists understand the origins of art and the advent of symbolic thinking, including complicated language.

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Bad Luck Bimbos: Intelligent Women Have Better Sex, Study Reveals

From Daily Mail:

Beauty may bag you a man - but brains will bring you more fun in the bedroom.

Women blessed with 'emotional intelligence' - the ability to express their feelings and read those of others - have better sex lives, research shows.

Those most in touch with their feelings have twice as many orgasms as inhibited sorts, the study found.

The finding could lead to new ways of counselling the 40 per cent of women who find it difficult or impossible to enjoy sex fully.

Researcher Tim Spector of King's College London said there were definite advantages to being a touchy-feely type.

He said: 'These findings show that emotional intelligence is an advantage in many aspects of your life, including the bedroom.'

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Why You May Lose That Loving Feeling After Tying The Knot

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2009) — Dating couples whose dreams include marriage would do well to step back and reflect upon the type of support they'll need from their partners when they cross the threshold, a new Northwestern University study suggests.

Will the partner who supports your hopes and aspirations while you are dating also help you fulfill important responsibilities and obligations that come with marriage? The answer to that question could make a difference in how satisfied you are after tying the knot.

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10 Surprising Sex Statistics

From Live Science:

Whether it's penis size, papillomavirus risk, or profligate pregnancies, it's good to know the numbers. Check out these stats to see if you are well within the sexual mean -- or if you're off the charts.

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Meat Now, Sex Later For Ivorian Chimps

Isha, an adult female wild chimpanzee, holding a piece of meat (the foot of a black and white colobus monkey) that she received from an adult male chimpanzee (Image: Cristina M. Gomes)

From New Scientist:

Chimpanzees trade precious scraps of meat for sex, new research shows. A two-year study of wild chimps finds that males boost their chances of having sex with a female by offering her meat.

But don't call them prostitutes. "It's not like 'I give you meat and a few hours later you're going to copulate with me,'" says Cristina Gomes, a primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

She and colleague Christophe Boesch instead uncovered more nuanced and long-term exchanges.

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Older Couples Race Against Their Biological Clocks To Start Families

Katherine Anne Harper was born on Jan. 18 when her mom, Kim, was 41.
SUSAN TUSA/Detroit Free Press

From The Detroit Free Press:

Kim Harper started a career before starting a family.

After graduating from Michigan State University in 1990, she traveled, earned a law degree and began working as an attorney. When Harper married in 2006, she and her husband, Jeff, hoped a baby would soon follow.

"We didn't marry until I was 38," Harper says, "and we always knew we didn't have a lot of time to waste."

A year passed; no baby.

Like many women who marry later in life, Harper didn't think much about her fertility until she'd reached the age at which many doctors warn that healthy pregnancies don't come easily.

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More People In Love Than Previously Thought

From Live Science:

Romeo and Juliet would approve: A new study found that romantic love can stand the test of time.

Though it is widely held that romance and sex must ultimately yield to friendly companionship over time, new research found that's not the case. Instead about 13 percent of people reported high levels of romance in their long-term relationships, in a new study published in the March issue of the journal Review of General Psychology.

Researchers analyzed data from surveys of more than 6,000 people, including some in newly-formed pairs and many in marriages of more than 20 years. The scientists found that a surprisingly high number of people were still very much in love with their long-term partners, though the researchers drew a distinction between romantic love, which can endure, and passionate or obsessive love, which often fades after the beginning of a relationship.

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Sex Goes Way Back, Fossil Find Shows

The armored fish, Materpiscis attenboroughi, may have given birth to its young tail-first, similar to some sharks and rays. Credit: Museum Victoria.

From Live Science:

Remains of embryos entombed in their fish mothers' wombs for 380 million years have been found in fossils from an ancient rock outcrop in Western Australia. The finding is a big deal because it suggests that sex goes way back.

The prehistoric fish, called placoderms, are found at the base of the vertebrate evolutionary tree (in a large group we humans also belong to), so it now looks like sexual intercourse, and the mating behaviors that go along with it, were more widespread in these ancient animals than previously thought, said the scientists who made the discovery.

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The Romantic Evolution of True Love

From Live Science:

True love is all about finding that one certain someone, and anthropologists have led us to believe that the quest for the perfect mate is evolutionarily based. Humans are, the researchers contend, a naturally pair-boded species.

The standard scenario goes like this: Human babies are born about three months too soon because upright walking changed the female pelvis and babies have to get out before their heads grow too big. As a result, human babies are born neurologically unfinished; they can’t sit up or grasp or do much of anything. By necessity, adult humans are designed to respond to the cries and babbles of infants; we rush to feed them and pick them up. The burden of this kind of child care is so intense, they say, that it takes two parents to bring up even one baby.

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Valentine’s Gifts For Your Science Geek

From Smithsonian Magazine:

Valentine’s Day quickly approaches, and you may be wondering what to buy for your own geeky Valentine (or what to request for yourself). You can start off by sending a Scientist Valentine. Darwin might be the best choice, since his 200th birthday is only two days before V-Day.

Let’s move on to the classic gifts of chocolate and candy. There’s a chocolate-colored tee with the molecule theobromine, the chemical that makes chocolate so fun. The molecule can also be found in the form of earrings or a necklace.

You can show your love with a gummy heart, an anatomical one, that is. But consider carefully—the cannibalism aspect might scare someone off.

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Goodbye Mr Nice Guy

From Scienceagogo:

Just in time for Valentine's Day, researchers have turned up some new answers to the age-old question of what we want in our partners. It turns out that "chastity" is unimportant and men are more interested in an educated woman who is a good financial prospect; and women are more interested in a man who wants a family and less picky about whether he's a "nice guy."

Sociologists Christine Whelan and Christie Boxer, from the University of Iowa (UI), arrived at their findings by analyzing a 2008 survey of more than 1,100 undergraduates from four different universities and comparing the results to past mate-preference research.

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Saliva: Secret Ingredient In The Best Kisses

From Live Science:

CHICAGO — Go ahead. Kiss the girl. And you might make it a wet one, because scientists who are starting to understand the biochemistry of kisses say that saliva increases sex drive.

Those in the kissing-science field of philematology are finding links between kissing and the hormones that affect coupling, researchers said here today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). And these hormones are one of the keys to our reproductive success, so there's a link to evolution and passing on our genes to the next generation.

"There is evidence that saliva has testosterone in it," said Rutgers University anthropologist Helen Fisher, and testosterone increases sex drive. "And there is evidence that men like sloppier kisses with more open mouth. That suggests they are unconsciously trying to transfer testosterone to stimulate sex drive in women."

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Kissing Feels So Pleasurable Due To Hormone Surge, Find Scientists

From The Telegraph:

The reason that kissing feels so pleasurable is that sparks a surge of hormones in our brains, according to new research.

Couples who share a passionate kiss this Valentine's Day will enjoy sensations of relaxation and excitement because of a complex series of chemical processes, as well as their love for their partners.

The study showed that women need more than just a kiss to experience the same chemical high as men - with additional features such as a romantic atmosphere of dimmed lights and mood music also required.

Wendy Hill, professor of psychology at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania began the research to find out why the mundane physical activity of rubbing lips can elicit such a gratifying emotional response.

Her team tested the levels of two hormones, cortisol and oxytocin, in 15 couples before and after holding hands and kissing.

They found that kissing reduced the levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in both sexes. But levels of oxytocin, a hormone linked to social bonding that they expected to be boosted by kissing, only rose among the men.

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The Look Of Love? Women Are Attracted To Men With Big Pupils, Says Study

Was Jennifer Aniston's character Beth in the film He's Just Not That Into You attracted to her boyfriend Neil, played by Ben Affleck, because of his big pupils?

From The Daily Mail:

Researchers have discovered what women are really thinking when they look into a man’s eyes – and it is all about the size of their...pupils.

Women become attracted to men with large pupils just as they are approaching their most fertile time of the month, the study at Edinburgh University found.

Scientists suggest that it may be because it indicates that the man is sexually interested in them and available for mating. Pupil size made no significant difference for the rest of the menstrual cycle.

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The Biology Of Dating: Why Him, Why Her?

From Time Magazine:

Ah, the eternal question: why is HE with HER? Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher thinks she has found the answer after studying the academic literature on personality and after poring over 40,000 responses to a questionnaire on an online dating site. A Rutgers professor and paid advisor for Chemistry.com, Fisher not only believes in romantic chemistry, but is zeroing in on specific chemicals. She spoke with TIME about her latest book, Why Him, Why Her: Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type.

A lot of things influence who we're attracted to, but one thing that has always puzzled scientists is the role that personality plays in mate selection. Have you solved that riddle?
There are two parts of personality. There's character, which is everything you grew up to believe and do and think. And then there's temperament, which is your inherited traits. Some people are more stubborn than others, some are more curious, some are more aggressive. What I'm trying to do is add the role of biology, of temperament, to our human understanding of love.

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Alcohol Makes Men BETTER In The Bedroom, Scientists Claim

Drinking effects: A study has suggested that alcohol improves rather than damages
a man's performance in the bedroom

From The Daily Mail:

Men who worry about the effect drinking has on their sex life should raise a glass to the latest research.

Alcohol actually improves rather than damages male performance in the bedroom, it is claimed.

Until now it has been widely believed that alcohol consumption can cause erectile dysfunction, or 'brewer's droop'.

But a study of 1,580 Australian men found drinkers reporting up to 30 per cent fewer problems than teetotallers.

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My Comment: What happens if the ladies drink. A study should also be done there.

What Do Women Want?

Photo: Ryan McGinley/Team Gallery

From The New York Times:

Meredith Chivers is a creator of bonobo pornography. She is a 36-year-old psychology professor at Queen’s University in the small city of Kingston, Ontario, a highly regarded scientist and a member of the editorial board of the world’s leading journal of sexual research, Archives of Sexual Behavior. The bonobo film was part of a series of related experiments she has carried out over the past several years. She found footage of bonobos, a species of ape, as they mated, and then, because the accompanying sounds were dull — “bonobos don’t seem to make much noise in sex,” she told me, “though the females give a kind of pleasure grin and make chirpy sounds” — she dubbed in some animated chimpanzee hooting and screeching. She showed the short movie to men and women, straight and gay. To the same subjects, she also showed clips of heterosexual sex, male and female homosexual sex, a man masturbating, a woman masturbating, a chiseled man walking naked on a beach and a well-toned woman doing calisthenics in the nude.

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Ouch! Can You Really Break Your Penis?

BANANA FRACTURE: There is a medical condition called penile fracture, which refers to tearing of tissue inside the penis. Image of banana sign by dlev1979 via flickr

From Scientific American:

The penile condition recently featured on the TV medical drama Grey's Anatomy is real and, sorry guys (and girls), not uncommon.

Ever since heartthrob television doctor Mark Sloan had a sexual mishap on last night's episode of TV hit show Grey's Anatomy, bloggers around the globe have been buzzing about a bizarre and horrifying condition called "broken penis syndrome". For those who didn't catch last night's hot and steamy love scene between Sloan (played by actor Eric Dane) and "intern" Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), be advised: it ended painfully—very painfully. At least for Sloan, who suffered a severe injury to his manhood, which prompted a slew of rumors among hospital staff about which woman "broke Sloan's penis," according to ABC's online recap of the episode.

Given that there are no bones in the penis, can it really break? It turns out there is an unfortunate injury termed "penile fracture" that can indeed occur during sexual intercourse. We asked Hunter Wessells, chair of the urology department at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle (also home to the show's Grace Hospital), to describe the condition and how it can happen.

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