Science and Tonsil Hockey

The Telegraph UK reports a newly published theory on the evolutionary origins of makin’ out.  Scientists have discovered that a woman’s immune system is far more robust if she’s been exposed to Cytomegalovirus before pregnancy.  This type of Herpes virus is especially dangerous to fetuses if the mother has never been exposed, or even if the mother hasn’t been exposed very much.

Interestingly, scientists have found that straight-up oral transmission is one of the most effective means of spreading the virus, particularly prior to prengancy.  Some theorize that this would be a strong enough evolutionary pressure to explain, at least in part, we human’s love of smoochin’.

I had always presumed that kissing was a simple consequence of our evolutionary oral fixation – a combination of gluttony and lust.  This new science of virus-swapping is interesting, though.  And so much sexier.