The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity―and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race

Product Information

Daniel Lieberman: We don't know exactly. Let's say you keep reading and you run across your own name. You're going to get a big surge of dopamine. So, dopamine responds to things in the environment that your brain thinks is important to you.

Presenter: OK, let's make sense of all this with Mrs Roberts. Are elements made up of a mixture of different types of atoms? Control dopamine takes the excitement and motivation provided by desire dopamine, evaluates options, selects tools, and plots a strategy to get what it wants. Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more - more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it’s why we gamble and squander. But let me change the situation slightly, and what my change is going to do is it's going to shift the neuro transmitters you're going to use to think about this problem, and it's going to change the way you view it. Mike Long: Dopamine sets us up to appreciate the world, to experience the world in two ways. And for me, this was, this was a revelatory. We have things that we appreciate — the color of your top right now, the color of the walls of the room, the feel of this table, a taste of a cup of water here I have. Things that we experience in the moment. We appreciate what they're like. That's one way we spend our time.In one molecule of water, there are two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Particle diagrams can also show the ratio of atoms of each element in a compound which in turn can tell us the formula of the compound - H₂O. Yeah, I mean, I guess what I’m just thinking about, you're saying it’s less about persuasion and, like try and bring someone to your side and more about some of the chemicals in our brains? Full Book Name: The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity–and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race

As opposed to the pleasure of anticipation via dopamine, these chemicals give us pleasure from sensation and emotion. So, one day he met a girl, dated her for a couple weeks and then persuaded her to come to Las Vegas with him and get married. Because, he thought that he could take control of this situation. He'd get married to her and live happily ever after. And it did not work out.Over time things become hidden from out attention. It’s not that a thing starts out hidden, it’s that we make it hidden because it’s not important to us. We inhibit our ability to notice things that are unimportant so we don’t have to waste our attention on them. Kaitlin Luna: Wow, that’s amazing. Thank you so much for joining us. This has been an absolutely fascinating conversation. Presenter: It's funny, because I don't remember seeing any atoms last time I looked in the mirror. Just these handsomely, devilish good looks.

An atom is the simplest particle of an element. In a particle diagram, atoms are represented by a single coloured circle. When atoms of two or more elements bond together, they make a compound. These clusters of strongly bonded atoms are called molecules. See how they're represented by two circles of different size and colour that are joined together. This particle diagram represents water or, to use its chemical formula, H₂O which is a compound of the elements hydrogen and oxygen. When it comes to love, the loss of passionate romance will always happen eventually, and then comes a choice. Kaitlin Luna: This is probably something that studied in psychiatry a lot are, you know, in the medical field? Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more—more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it’s why we gamble and squander.Dopaminergic love has been called passionate love, and that's the feeling of being in love, that almost insane feeling of passion for the other person. Unbounded optimism. Anything is possible. That lasts about nine to twelve months. Kaitlin Luna: Everything in our body serves a purpose. So, from evolutionary perspective, why does dopamine exist in our brains and are we the only animals who have dopamine? Daniel Lieberman: Yes, that's right. It increases the amount of dopamine that's active at any given point in time. But that's basically by ferrying it from an inactive place to intact place.

So, from an evolutionary point of view, it's incredibly important. And that's why it's so powerful because it directs our behavior from the bottom up. It's designed to keep us alive and make us evolutionarily successful.

Covalent vs. ionic compounds: molecules vs. formula units

The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas―and progress itself.