Real AI Romance: Where Code Meets Crush
In a study that feels equal parts psychology seminar and sci-fi book club, Cornell University researchers developed and validated the Love Attitudes Scale toward Artificial Intelligence, the first validated tool designed to measure romantic love directed at AI companions. Drawing on Lee’s love style theory (Eros, Ludus, Storge, Mania, Pragma, Agape), the 24-item scale captures 6 flavors of affection: passionate attraction, companionship, practicality, jealousy, selflessness, and playful detachment, and was tested across 3 independent samples totaling 899 adults. The results suggest that AI romance is not all tongue-in-cheek. Participants scored highest on aesthetic attraction, emotional companionship, and practical utility, while playful, noncommittal love ranked lowest. More than one-third reported being in, or having been in, a romantic relationship with AI. Those with AI ‘relationship’ experience showed higher affectionate and selfless love styles, whereas AI newcomers leaned more toward jealousy and game-playing. While limited by cultural scope and self-report, the study offers a rigorously built ruler that gives researchers a surprisingly solid framework for studying how humans fall for machines, earnestly, aesthetically, and apparently quite seriously.
Source: arXiv:2601.12871
An Unusual Object: A Common Dilemma
In a case report that feels like classic ER lore with a teachable twist, researchers described the successful bedside removal of a retained rectal foreign body using a simple but clever modification of a familiar tool. A 63-year-old man presented after inserting a 4-inch silicone ball, inserted for sexual self-stimulation; the device became stuck when its retrieval cord snapped. Rectal foreign bodies aren’t exactly unicorns, accounting for about 1.9 emergency department visits per 100,000 people annually in the US, and most can be managed at the bedside if imaging rules out perforation or bleeding. In this case, CT imaging and labs were reassuring, but the smooth, spherical object resisted manual removal and standard tools. A Foley catheter inflated to the usual 30 mL balloon volume slipped right past it. The clever twist? Hyperinflating the same Foley balloon to 60 mL, which finally provided enough traction to remove the object—no sedation, no operating room, no complications. The patient went home shortly after, offering a memorable reminder that sometimes a little extra inflation can save a lot of trouble.
Source: Cureus
What Falling in Love Does to You
Love may feel like magic, but investigators make a strong case that it is also very disciplined neurobiology—just with better PR. Romantic love lights up dopamine-rich reward circuits similar to addiction, explaining the laser focus and mild euphoria of early infatuation, while serotonin levels dip in ways that resemble obsessive thinking. Early-stage love has also been linked to higher nerve growth factor levels, tracking with emotional intensity. Cortisol and oxytocin appear to rise and fall depending on whether love feels thrilling, stressful, or secure. Sex hormones also join the party: Across studies, testosterone appeared to respond dynamically to social and sexual cues—rising in women after viewing erotic stimuli and in men after interacting with single, but not partnered, women. As relationships mature, oxytocin and vasopressin support bonding, trust, and long-term attachment, though the researchers caution that these hormones are helpful collaborators, not sole conductors. Modern spoilers, including social media–driven dopamine hits and population-wide testosterone declines, may be quietly sabotaging intimacy. Love, it turns out, is a full endocrine ensemble—brilliant, messy, and exquisitely human.
Source: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Bubbles and New Bonds
In an ethnographic study from Durham University published in Genealogy, bubble tea turned out to be less about tapioca pearls and more about people. Drawing on survey responses and in-depth interviews conducted between 2019 and 2020, investigators found that the Durham Bubble Tea Society functioned as a social matchmaking space, culturally speaking. For East Asian students, bubble tea was a daily comfort and emotional lifeline, prompting supply runs to nearby cities and collaborations with local vendors to recreate a taste of home. For others, the drink was an entry point into global youth culture—trendy, Instagram-ready, and a way to signal cosmopolitan curiosity. Events blending East Asian traditions with Western snacks created a “third space” where students could connect without fully assimilating to the host culture. In the absence of family networks, the society offered psychological comfort and helped foster friendships, which researchers wrote may be an “indispensable part of student well-being.” This just solidifies the age-old idea that relationships—cultural and interpersonal—can start with a shared cup.
Source: Genealogy
The History of a Kiss
Turns out kissing may be one of evolution’s most enduring habits. A study published in Evolution and Human Behavior suggested that kissing first appeared in the common ancestor of large apes roughly 21.5 to 16.9 million years ago and was largely retained across hominid lineages—yes, even our extinct relatives. Using Bayesian phylogenetic modeling across 10,000 primate family trees, investigators found that kissing clustered strongly by shared ancestry, rather than popping up repeatedly by chance. With a carefully non-anthropocentric definition (no food transfer, no aggression), the analyses estimated a high probability that Neanderthals kissed (posterior probability, 0.843), adding unexpected warmth to the Paleolithic. Kissing tended to co-occur with multi-male mating systems and non-folivorous diets, while food sharing showed no consistent link. Although the data were uneven and often drawn from captive observations, the findings suggest that kissing is less a cultural novelty than an ancient ape tradition humans simply refined.
Source: Evolution and Human Behavior
The intersection of medicine and the unexpected reminds us how wild, weird, and wonderful science can be. The world of health care continues to surprise and astonish.
