BA Book review: The Science Of Kissing

I have philematophilia. I practice on my wife every day, and I’m not ashamed to say I spent a good part of my youth working on it as well.

So what’s philematophilia? Actually, I made up that word — though a web search will turn it up, it’s not officially a real word. But it should be: it means a lover of kissing. I based it on philematophobia, a proper word, and I learned that one in a very cool book called The Science of Kissing, penned by my Discover Magazine co-blogger Sheril Kirsehnbaum, who writes at The Intersection.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book — literally, I had no idea about the history of kissing, the science of it, or even if you could study it scientifically — but it turns out to be a very fun read, with a lot of really interesting information about locking lips.

The first part of the book is devoted to the history of kissing as a greeting, which I found interesting (I always assumed shaking hands was an ancient custom, but she implies it’s actually rather ...

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