Match and sniff
Matchmaking is a gamble. Many of us know how it feels to be on the wrong end of a blind date, repelled by the 'match' and enraged by the 'maker'.
Conventional computer dating has reduced the element of chance a little. It gives you a foggy idea of how the other person thinks and looks. Still, the results stand on shaky ground because prospects can lie and doctor their pictures.
So 'scientific dating', except in the context of archaeologists, is perhaps a contradiction in terms.
But the scenario apparently changes at ScientificMatch.com, where romantic chemistry has been mixed with the laboratory kind. Founder and president Eric Holzle, 44, delivers romantic matches based on DNA profiling.
ScientificMatch.com backs up its claim of being able to find genetically matched pairs with scientific studies, including the 'sweaty T-shirt experiment' that inspired Holzle.
About six years ago, Holzle, a mechanical engineer based in Florida, in the United States, saw a documentary on an educational cable TV channel about an unusual experiment conducted at a Swiss college in 1995.
A number of male students slept in their T-shirts for two nights. A group of female students then sniffed the T-shirts to rate their degree of attractiveness.
Some T-shirt odours were declared as being very sexy or attractive by some women, but rated very unattractive by others. The observed trend was that the more similar the immune system between the T-shirt wearer and the sniffer, the less attractive the garment smelled. Women with very different immune system genes from the T-shirt wearers usually felt drawn to the men's 'natural body fragrance'. In terms of immune system genes, opposites really do attract.
'When I saw that documentary, I immediately thought it was a great theory on which to base a dating service,' says Holzle.
He duly embarked on five years of research and development. During that time, the more Holzle learned about matching people with different immune system genes, the more it dawned on him that the benefits far exceeded the freaky fact that you may well actually enjoy the smell of your partner's dirty laundry.
ScientificMatch.com debuted in December last year. People who signed up paid almost US$2,000 each and received a DNA collection kit, which includes a cotton swab.
After rubbing the inside of your mouth to collect skin cells from your cheek, you send the sample in the pre-addressed envelope to Holzle's laboratory. After the analysis is complete, the results are uploaded to the website, where matches are made.
According to ScientificMatch.com, the benefits of genetic matchmaking include less cheating and the ability to achieve more orgasms.
For better or worse, Holzle claims to have cut the risks in dating. But some, especially divorce lawyers, might say the fun in dating lies in the uncertainty.
Marrying someone on the grounds of their body odour hardly seems romantic but it beats spending two years fighting over who gets which DVD and who pays for the children's education.
