What is love? It’s a question that has befuddled philosophers for millennia, and scientists today still aren’t sure
Niall McDiarmid/Millennium Images, UK
A smitten couple lean in for a kiss in a hotel lobby as I beeline towards a softly lit conference room buzzing with first-date energy. I am here to attend the Love, Actually and in Theory meeting, organised by the Royal Society, in Edinburgh, UK. As a romantic myself, I am hoping to get an answer to one of life’s biggest mysteries: what is love?
Over the next two days, I heard dozens of researchers – from evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists to psychologists – share their perspectives on that instinctive-yet-elusive thing called love, with a heavy focus on the romantic kind.
