What the world needs is...

...more oxytocin.

Not to be confused with OxyContin, of course, though I suspect there are those who would benefit from more of that as well.

Aside from it's role in birth, breastfeeding and both male and female orgasm, oxytocin is thought to be a naturally produced substance that may result on the bonding of people to each other. Or it could just be a case of, "You know, baby, I dig you and all, but you just don't stimulate my pituitary glad to produce oxytocin."

And yet, it is a peptide that also keeps human beings nastier instincts in check. Check this (according to Wikipedia):

• Nasally administered oxytocin appears to generate trust in humans. In a 2005 study, it was shown that in a risky investment game, experimental subjects given the hormone displayed what the researchers deemed "the highest level of trust" twice as often as the control group who were given placebos. The same experiment with the subjects told that they were interacting with a computer showed no such reaction, leading to the conclusion that oxytocin was not merely affecting risk-aversion (Kosfeld 2005)
• Various anti-stress functions: reducing blood pressure and cortisol levels, increasing tolerance to pain, reducing anxiety.
• Oxytocin may play a role in encouraging "tend and befriend", as opposed to "flight or fight", behavior, in response to stress.

It can also be used to induce maternal behaviour. So is it possible that some people produce too much or too little of this substance? Are those overly motherly-types socialized into being overprotective and clingy, or have they just got an over-abundance of oxytocin?

It seems to me to be one of biology's ways of keeping human beings from completely killing each other outright. I mean, we're all a bunch of miserable bastards in some way or another... But wouldn't it be nice just to slip a little of this in a certain surly someone's drink?

(And yes, Ro --I'm sure my reasoning is terribly unscientific and faulty. Yet sometimes talking out of one's arse can be an amusing experience. Any technical corrections will be ignored, as I'm merely hypothesizing, as opposed to stating scientific fact.)

OK. Enough procrastinating. Must run and construct back cover copy about beautiful, oversexed singles who do naughty things in limos, back rooms, etc. Even if one is a socialist and the other is a conservative prig.