Cosmic Chemistry? It Was “Love At First Science”

Science is a pretty special subject, but to some, it’s downright romantic. We asked our listeners if they fell for someone across the fume hood or got butterflies over bacterial culture, and they responded with their science-y love stories. Below are a few of our favorite responses—they’re sure to warm even the coldest bunsen burner in your chest. 

Have your own “love at first science” story? Join the conversation on social media (we’re always @scifri) or leave us a voicemail at 646-767-6532. 

A Flaming Beaker Of Love

I met my wife when we were both science teachers in middle school. … I showed her [a fire safety] demo, she did a practice run, and she accidentally lit the beaker on fire. And because our school did not have a very large budget, the beakers were plastic and the beaker melted. She ended up buying me a backup beaker, but we still kept the melted one as a memento. And now we’re more than 10 years married with two kids. Yeah, so that’s how we met. I love you Kate. Dr. Kate!

—Adam, Irvine, CA

Cad-amorous

At Buffalo’s medical school, we did everything alphabetically. So I met my future husband because we sat next to each other in microscope labs. We had the same cadaver because [our last names both started with W]. And now we have four kids, two dogs… recently two cats.

—Karen, Buffalo, NY

Mountaineering Magic

My husband climbed Mount McKinley as the team doctor on the Dartmouth scientific expedition in the 1960s, and I climbed Mount Rainier. After hearing about each other for about almost two years, we finally were introduced soon after I’d returned from base camp on Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas. Our first conversation was about high-altitude cerebral edema, which made him find me irresistible.

—Marcy, Fresno, CA

Love At First Write

Being pen pals coast-to-coast and having met through a shared genetic abnormality we both had, and friendship grew, love grew, based on years and years of writing real letters to each other. [We’re] now married in a loving relationship.

—Lon

Chatting Over The Microscopes

I met my spouse in 1984, in embryology class. We had to look under the microscopes and draw pictures of what we saw, which was embryos. She was very meticulous in her notebook. Mine was a mess ‘cause I wasn’t very neat. She made fun of my drawings, started chatting over the microscopes [to] get to know each other. Then finally I had the guts to ask her out, go get a bite, and the rest was history.

—Dan, Longmeadow, MA

Cultivating A Connection

I met my husband working at a sustainable agriculture lab together. So we were always in the field digging holes, or getting covered in irrigation water trying to figure out pressure in the citrus fields, and through all of that we fell in love. Now we’re married and we’re sustainability scientists together.

—Zoe, Fort Pierce, FL

Smolde-ring

I work in the field of orthotics and prosthetics. I’d been in a relationship with my now wife for about 10 years and I decided that it was time to ask her to marry me. So I said I needed to practice taking an impression of somebody with a deformity of their hands and I took that impression of her one night … to get her ring size. And so then I went into the jeweler and talked to them about custom making a ring. … I showed him the model and he was pretty alarmed by it because he never had somebody bring in a plaster version of their wife’s hand. … I designed a ring, printed it, and then forged it at a dental laboratory. … She said yes, and now we have an almost two-year-old.

—Brian, Chamblee, GA

Starry-Eyed Gazing

He was studying astrophysics while I was studying nursing. And he one night said, “Let’s go on a midnight picnic.” I was very excited. I was thinking all kinds of romantic notions in my head, and I was looking forward to this evening alone with this young man. We went out where there was this beautiful meadow and the sky was dark, there was no moon. He pulled a blanket out of the car and then proceeded to set up his telescope and told me that if the Sun and the Earth were an inch apart from each other then that star there would be 4 miles away. … I learned a lot about astronomy that night.

—Lori, Baton Rouge, LA

Illustrations by Emma Gometz.

Subscribe To Our Radio Preview Newsletter

We love it when our listeners get to be a part of Science Friday. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear about our upcoming stories, and submit questions and comments for our experts!

Subscribe