Biology: The Chemistry of Desire

(7 of 7)

Maybe that's just as well. For those who suffer from a lack of interest in sex, like Roslyn Washington, it's great to have a treatment that works. But like the women in the testosterone study who responded to a placebo showed, the real point is to create a sex life that works. Feeling is believing, and vice versa. We experience attraction and sexual desire as a sort of magic, a phenomenon filled with delightful mystery. And if scientists continue to be overwhelmed by the complex interplay of dozens of substances percolating from mind to body and back, that keeps the mystery nicely intact. --Reported by Sonja Steptoe/Los Angeles