YOU MAY NOW FLEX THE BRIDE'S PROSTURAL MUSCLES

Sealed with... 146 muscles (Roger Highfield, The Telegraph, October 17th, 2006)

A kiss is more than just a kiss. Kissing is a symbol of romance, love and affection. A polite peck is an accepted greeting between friends and family. A hungry snog a symbol of base desire.

In the Bible, a sly smacker is even a symbol of betrayal. Now the resources of science are being applied to shed new light on this most powerful gesture.

The question of "what's in a kiss" has taxed lovers, poets and scientists throughout the ages.

Dr Henry Gibbons defined it as: "The anatomical juxtaposition of two orbicularis oris muscles in a state of contraction", while, in Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand said it was a "rosy dot placed on the 'i' in loving".

The physical nature of a kiss was first revealed a few years ago in detail by an animated scan of a vertical cross-section through the head, made by Elaine Sassoon, Annabelle Dytham, Robert Scully and Prof Gus McGrouther at the Rayne Institute in University College London.

The scan revealed that a kiss is mostly due to the squashing of a pair of muscles with a J-shaped cross-section, drawing on all 34 facial muscles for success.

"Not only do you use your facial muscles in kissing, but approximately 112 postural muscles as well," added Prof McGrouther, now at the University of Manchester.[...]

A few days ago, an intriguing insight into the enduring nose problem was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience by Martin Sereno and Ruey-Song Huang of the University of California, San Diego.

Planting a kiss on the lips, and avoiding that troublesome proboscis, requires "prompt, co-ordinated processing of spatial visual and somatosensory information," said Dr Sereno.

Busy old fools.