All you need is love?

I love science, but I hate scientists.

I know this is a sweeping generalisation, but I spent four years of my life at Imperial College of Science, Medicine and Technology, surrounded by the analytic autistics, and I'm afraid it has tainted my views in a way that can't be remedied.

I was reminded of the reason I most dislike members of the scientific fraternity today when I read this article on the BBC news website.

Science is a beautiful thing, it contains incredible revelations, such as the fact that all known matter is made up of only 118 elements, and uncovers even greater mysteries, such as the double slit experiment, which shows that light can act like both a particle and a wave.

The problem is the people who tend to research science are, by definition, scientists. Now I'm sure there are a few good egg scientists out there who can empathise with people's feelings and recognise things outside their own work as being important. The problem is that in the academic world these people are probably not very good scientists.

Apart from a small group of my close friends (I know that I would say that, but remember that birds of a feather drink heavily together) almost everyone who I encountered at Imperial fell into the category of bad scientists.

These people are not malicious, or in any way stupid, but what they are is blind to humanity. They are the kind of people who could be talked into designing a bomb which could destroy the universe for the sake of the challenge, and then be suprised when someone actually builds it.

Everything in the world of scientists has to be rationalised - there is a theory that if you knew the position and direction of every particle in the universe you could map out the future. But where does that leave humanity and the concept of free will?

The above article angered me because it is part of this whole school of thinking that says love is nothing more than synapses flashing in our brain, predictable human behaviour, part of our internal programming to make sure we procreate and the species survives. Who is anyone to tell us that our ideas of romantic love are delusional? That there is no such thing as love at first site?

Why can't people be allowed to believe in magic, even if they are wrong? Why does everything have to be explained? Why shouldn't we hold out for someone we believe is perfect for us and who seems to be able to read our mind?

And the worst of it is that once again the good old media get the blame. This time for spreading an unachievable view of the romantic ideal.

But if you look at it I think it is the exact opposite - the media and advertising have been killing the idea of true love for ages. Open any fashion magazine and you will see airbrushed pictures of the beautiful folk wearing £1,000 dresses or cufflinks studded with diamonds, with vacuous unemotional looks in their eyes.

Television tells us we must all be on the property ladder and decorate our homes with IKEA cupboards and eggshell paint. No longer are relationships supposed to be about feelings, but instead financial security, desirable possessions and superficial looks.

Now I'm not saying it is wrong to chose this path, I'm just saying I wish modern life wasn't quite so accepting of it, with pre-nuptial agreements and online wedding gift lists.

Like a kind of emotional X-Files, I want to believe, I think there is one person out there for me and I'm not going to settle until I find that person. In the meantime I'm off to watch the Princess Bride, a film which features giants, miracle workers, true love and pirates, but no scientists...