The Science of Love Can pheromones turn a geek into a sex god? Maybe – and maybe not. By Brian Lam I’m just a geek looking for a love connection – without hiding behind an online dating service. So I’m putting myself out there, mixing it up with people at bars and clubs. On this particular night, I’ve spotted a knockout across the room. She’s dancing, and I’m sure the algorithm for her kind of motion hasn’t been duplicated in code. This woman is smokin’. I size up the competition: Half a dozen studs, taller and better-looking than I am, are closing in. It’s time to make my move. I dab on a little of my secret helper – a pricey concoction called Athena Pheromone 10X – and strut across the dance floor. For a month, I’ve been covertly testing 10X to find out if sex pheromones can improve my love life. Hey, they work for bees. Why not me? Well, as the experts will tell you, helping humans get a little nooky is another matter altogether. The back pages of men’s magazines are filled with dubious ads for pheromone colognes like Scent of Eros, Primal Instinct, and Rogue Mate. But 10X is different – it’s backed by science! Formulated by Winnifred B. Cutler, the reproductive biologist who codiscovered human pheromones in 1986, 10X is based on the sweat secretions of sexually active twentysomething males. In an eight-week study published in Archives of Sexual Behavior, men wearing 10X got lucky 74 percent more often than those swabbed with a placebo. I’ll take those odds! Leaning on the bar, I play it cool at first, figuring the pheromones will waft through the industrial air-circulation system and coax the lady to my side. Nothing happens. Then I recall reading somewhere that pheromones have a range of only 5 to 10 feet. But my other prospects aren’t bad: Patty thinks I smell sexy, Emmy says she’d date me if she weren’t already engaged to a surgeon, ... As a friend unaware of my assignment puts it, “Who died and mad you Don Juan?” Problem is, I can’t tell how much of my allure is due to 10X and how much to the confidence I gain from thinking the stuff might actually work. The results are too subtle and subjective. Plus, these are women I might have approached without chemical enhancement. There is only one way to find out if pheromones are really magnifying my mojo: Wear the love potion, and make the most gorgeous gal in the bar – the kind who’s usually out of my league – mine. My finger touches the siren’s shoulder, and she turns. “What do you want?” she asks coyly. “Um, want to dance?” I manage. She grins, looks me up and down – mostly down – and says, “Not really.” The verdict: 10X gave me a boost in confidence and possibly in chemical charisma. But this stuff clearly doesn’t work miracles... Apparently, the scent of pheromones is still overpowered by nerves. Let’s face it, women can smell fear. Brian Lam.

COMMENT FROM ATHENA INSTITUTE: Both Athena Pheromone 10:13tm for women and Athena Pheromone 10Xtm for men are cosmetics that can increase your attractiveness to the opposite sex. Neither product is an “aphrodisiac.”

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