Technician - Valentine's Day tabloid

TECHNICIAN

Love

& sundry topics

The reality of love See page 7

An object of desire See page

6

Poems from the Pack See page 8

Mapping sweet success See pages 4-5

Love: A science through the ages THE CHEMISTRY Katie Sanders Deputy Features Editor

Some things may never be understood by science. However, with the help of two unassuming rodents, love may not be one of them.

Lisa McGraw, an assistant professor of biology, studies and compares the neurotransmitters of prairie voles, monogamous

THE HISTORY mouse-like creatures, and their promiscuous cousins, meadow voles. McGraw’s research delves into the biological factors influencing attraction and partnership, and voles have proven to be the model organisms to study.

“We can use these animal models to begin to understand the genetic and neurobiological basis of love and attraction,” McGraw

VOLES continued page 2

Nikki Stoudt Life & Style Editor

We celebrate Valentine’s Day these days with boxes of chocolate, bouquets of flowers and time with loved ones, but the history of Valentine’s Day — and the story of its patron saint — is doused in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance and that St. Valentine’s

Day contains signs of both Christian and ancient Roman traditions. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

Timothy Stinson, professor of medieval literature, said it was Geoffrey Chaucer, the 14th century English poet and supposed “father of the English language,” who first made

HISTORY continued page 3

2 LOVE & Sundry Topics • 2013

VOLES

continued from page 1

said. While conclusions made about the voles’ relationships won’t translate directly to humans, they can be used to hypothesize about the science behind our emotions.

Endocrinologists, experts of hormones and their physiology, have found vasopressin and oxytocin are the two main neurotransmitters that distinguish between the personalities of voles. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that communicate between nerve cells, or neurons.

There are dozens of neurotransmitters, and they control everything from the excitation of our muscles, to how we experience pleasure, to how we stay motivated. Each neurotransmitter is also associated with a corresponding receptor. The transmitters are like the keys to the receptors’ locks, and the “unlocking” of the receptors prompts a biological action.

Vasopressin and oxytocin, present in all vertebrates, including humans, neurologically facilitate emotional attachment.

While promiscuous and monogamous voles both have vasopressin and oxytocin, the corresponding neurotransmitter receptors to these chemicals are located in different parts of their brains. McGraw and other researchers have determined this slight difference is what influences the voles’ behavior.

Dopamine, another neurotransmitter, functions in the process of forming and maintaining pair-bonds, close types of courtships.

Dopamine is associated with pleasure and is released when animals undergo social interactions.

“A lot of people have likened forming a social bond to an addiction, almost,” McGraw said.

Promiscuous voles experience pleasure when they form pair-bonds, while monogamous voles’ stimulate their dopamine neurological circuitry when they maintain their pair-bonds. Because dopamine is associated with what neurologists call the reward system, it strongly influences and incentivizes certain behaviors, sometimes even to the point of addiction.

Researchers are now using genetic tech-

niques to manipulate where receptors are expressed in voles’ brain anatomy to study their behavior differences. Through this process they have been able to create monogamous meadow voles and cause the normally faithful prairie voles to look for multiple mates.

While less is known about human oxytocin and vasopressin receptors, it is hypothesized that we function in a similar way.

“We do, however, know that we do have the same neurotransmitters, vasopressin and oxytocin, and the same receptors for them,” McGraw said. “There are some genetic elements that humans have that have been associated with pair-bonding.”

However, McGraw said genetics are not the “say all, end all” for our relationships.

We also learn through experience and social constructs — for example, cultural norms determine a lot about the nature of that society’s relationships.

“There is likely to be a genetic basis to a lot of the variation we see, but we know that the environment is going to play a big influence,” McGraw said. “So I don’t think that we’re genetically wired to be monogamous or promiscuous necessarily.”

This is not just because we learn to go against our genetic natures to please society—how we are raised actually has an influence on which genes we express, a field of study called epigenetics.

Because only about 10 percent of our DNA codes for proteins and is expressed, it was suggested in the past that the other 90 percent was “junk DNA.” However, researchers are now discovering this “junk DNA” does have a purpose: Based on an organism’s experiences, “junk DNA” will tell functional DNA which proteins to produce. This means our experiences and choices modify our DNA expression, according to John Godwin, an associate professor of biology who studies sex-changing fish.

McGraw cited studies in which rats that groomed their pups, which was a genetic trait, were given baby rats that were genetically predisposed to not groom their pups.

However, as their foster mothers groomed them, the baby rats learned from experience

GRAPHIC BY BRETT MORRIS

and began to express different genes. When they had pups of their own, the majority of them also groomed their pups.

“Offspring end up to be like their moms — the moms that raised them,” McGraw said. “If a … mom is grooming her baby, that is causing epigenetic changes in the oxytocin receptor.”

McGraw found some voles develop the opposite relationships, defying their genetic predispositions. This is still not understood, and researchers have now mapped the genomes of the two types of voles to find where genetic variations occur.

“Complex behavior is, as you might expect, complicated,” Godwin said.

Nevertheless, researchers are getting closer to understanding the science of attraction.

While some may find that idea frightening,

The average number of childern conceived on Valentine’s Day:

Godwin stands behind behavioral research.

“We’re really more aimed at understanding processes in order to help those people, who, because of their genetic inheritance or experience, really suffer in life,” Godwin said. “Some of the things I think people might think of as taking away from ‘the magic of experience,’ if you will, it’s very practical. Think about that person who can’t feel it. Many neuropsychiatric disorders are deprived from the ability to feel that.”

Though many would like to think of love as an ethereal experience, scientists and lowly rodents are reminding us that in the end, there has to be some chemistry.

11,000 SOURCE: STATISTICBRAIN.COM

continued from page 1

the connection between Valentine’s Day and romantic love.

“The Oxford Dictionary definition of ‘Valentine’s Day’ says that it originated from medieval times and they’d be right,” Stinson said.

“What most people don’t know is that it was Chaucer who was behind it.”

The first recorded association of Valentine’s Day with romantic love is in Parliament of Fowls (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer wrote: For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make. (“For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”)

The time to which Chaucer refers has been a source of debate among medieval literature scholars, including Stinson.

“The poem is all about the one time of year when birds come together to choose a mate,” Stinson said. “In England, that time of year isn’t February, it’s May.” In defense of a May date for Valentine’s day, many medieval literature scholars take

Chaucer mentions Valentine’s Day but does not give any context — a fact, Stinson said, that has frustrated historians for centuries.

“It’s frustratingly vague,” Stinson said. “We’re left to wonder just where Chaucer got the idea from.

We’re left asking the question ‘who was St. Valentine?’”

The Catholic Church identifies at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend claims Valentine was a priest who served in Rome during the third century. When Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for young men in an attempt to cultivate a better army, Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine was discovered, Claudius had him beheaded. Other stories suggest Valentine was killed for attempting to help Christians escape Roman prisons, where they were tortured and executed. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine sent the first “valentine” greeting after he fell in love with a young girl who visited him during his time in jail. It is

3 2013 • LOVE & Sundry Topics

HISTORY

into account the fact the poem was commissioned for first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381.

“Birds play a huge part in the romanticizing of Valentine’s Day,” Stinson said. “Chaucer really related their companionship and mating rituals to humans and the commonplace courtship that goes on between two people.

They build nests together and raise a family together, just like we do.”

Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls is set in a fictional context of what appears to be old English tradition, but in fact there was no such tradition before Chaucer.

Further study, Stinson said, shows that Chaucer wasn’t the only poet who wrote works about birds mating on St. Valentine’s Day. Though Chaucer predated him, Oton de Graunson from Savoy, France is widely acknowledged to be one of the only other authors to make the same claims.

“It seems to be a running theme with medieval and Renaissance literature,” Stinson said. “Because the records of those times are often lost, it’s really difficult to tell who came up with what first. It’s pretty clear that this one goes to Chaucer.”

In the excerpt from Parliament of Fowls,

GRAPHIC BY BRETT MORRIS

supposed he signed it “from your Valentine,” an expression that we still use today.

Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is unclear, the stories emphasize his appeal as a heroic and romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in Europe, and according to many college couples, his popularity persists.

Reasons to LOVE Campus Edge...

www.CampusEdgeRaleigh.com

In-House Movie Theater 24 Hour GYM 2 Resort Pools On The Wolfline HUGE Walk-In Closets Resident Parties Large Private Bedroom Suites Private Bathrooms Privacy Locks All Inclusive Rent Ultra Level Tanning Bed On Site Garages BarkPark

LOVE & Sundry Topics • 2013

Mapping out sweet success for date night TOWARD CAMPUS 10 Key 3

COMPILED BY MARK HERRING | GRAPHIC BY TREY FERGUSON

T

he key to a great night with your sweetheart requires some planning on the front end. Every player needs a plan, and on game day, you need to have already nailed down the basics. Additionally, every accomplished player knows to save time and room for improvisation. Check out Technician’s suggestions to make your night as enjoyable — and logistically possible — as it can.

Love should feel natural and spontaneous, but if you don’t set it up correctly, it will never progress.

Reservations Whether you want to stay put at one place for all three courses or hop around town for dinner and dessert, you have to make sure there’s space at the restaurant. Vying couples completely booked tables at Second Empire and Tavern, one of the nicest restaurants in Raleigh, for Valentine’s Day by the first week of

January. But don’t let the ambitious spoil your dinner plans. Our recommendations should have space available, and if you call soon, you can prove to your sweetheart that you care.

Flowers

Make sure to buy your flowers in advance, because by Thursday afternoon, all that will be left are dyed daisies and carnations.

2

8

Locales With moderate temperatures in the high 50s, make sure to not to stay cooped up indoors — that’s for later. Take advantage of Raleigh’s picnic venues, picturesque vistas and private settings. Deep conversations cannot progress romantic hookups in your dorm room or un-vacated apartment.

3

1

3

Desserts

2

Indulge yourself, but save room for later...

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

5

1. GreatBlooms 2. Kelly Odom Flowers 3. Carlton’s Flowers

4

2

1 2

4

1

42nd Street Oyster Bar Moe’s Diner Buku Sitti Gravy Bida Manda Beasley’s Chicken and Honey Sushi Blues Remedy Diner Market Resturant

FLOWERS

5

1

CENTENNIAL CAMPUS

DINING

LOCALES 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

4&5 7 3

6

9

MAPS BY GOOGLEMAPS

Dorothea Dix Field Lake Raleigh Hallifax Mall State Capitol Museum of Natural Sciences

DESSERTS 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Gigi’s Cupcakes Sugarland Turkish Delights Morning Times The Cupcake Shoppe

5 2013 • LOVE & Sundry TopicsL

4

6 LOVE & Sundry Topics• 2013

An object of desire: from beans to bars

KATHERINE HOKE/TECHNICIAN

(Left) The staff at Escazu roasts the cacao beans. (Middle) After weeks of aging, chocolate is poured into a mold and vibrated until the chocolate spreads evenly, a process called tempering.

(Right) Finally, chocolate bars are hand wrapped in metallic gold foil and a label.

Kaitlin Montgomery & Lindsey Schaefer Staff Writers

Eating enough chocolate on Valentine’s Day to make your pants’ button pop might be second nature to some, but for �Hallot Parson, founder of Escazu Artisan Chocolates, it’s something he sees every day.

With about five years under its belt, Escazu was the first in the Triangle to make chocolate directly from the cocoa bean. Consequently, there are few in Raleigh who know the chocolate-making process as well as he does.

And for Parson, it all starts from the cocoa beans.

While each chocolate producer sources beans from different areas, at Escazu, Parson uses Venezuelan and Costa Rican cocoa beans.

Larger producers such as Hershey’s may use cocoa beans from other areas like farms along the coast of Africa.

However, because Parson said he has rapport with the farmers in Venezuela and Costa Rica, he chooses to source from small farmers so he can help monitor quality more carefully and experiment if he wishes.

“All chocolate is different because of the beans,” Parson said. “The fact that we go to the farm, I think, is a very big deal.”

Parson said that especially for a small producer, proper sourcing of cocoa beans is very important because not all beans are created equal.

“We go through about a thousand pounds a month,” Parson said. “We work with small farmers and the beans that we use are beans that are very delicate in flavor. They are small farms and they are prized, high-quality beans and we pay a lot of money for them. Even if Hershey wanted to do that, they couldn’t because the farms are way too small.”

Cocoa beans produced by the plantations that larger chocolate producers resort to generally lack the nuances and the depth of cocoa beans sourced elsewhere, Parson said.

However, some of this may also be due to the way farmers treat and ferment the beans.

“That’s really how you can determine if the farm is handling the bean well,” Parson said.

“Another reason why we use Venezuelan beans is because there is a rich, multi-generational history of working with these beans and everyone in the chocolate world knows it.”

After choosing the source of cocoa beans and separating them from loose rocks that may have fallen in with them, chocolate producers roast the beans. At Escazu, employees roast the beans over an open flame roaster

from Spain.

After sorting, chocolate makers still have to remove the “husks” from the “nibs,” the edible part of the cocoa bean that gives chocolate its flavor.

Chocolate producers create a paste from the nibs. At Escazu, this is done with a large machine called a “melanger,” displayed prominently at the store.

“Our [melanger] is an antique from the ‘30s.

[They are] essentially big stone wheels that crush the beans,” Parson said.

According to Parson, the type of equipment used can change the chocolate entirely. The process contains many steps and at every point there is a possibility for a different final product. This possibility allows for a bit of innovation in which Escazu introduces their aging process, Parson said.

“We like to age the chocolate for at least a month,” Parson said. “If we can get more, that’s even better. The flavor of the cocoa bean is not just chocolate [without aging]. There could be dried cherry flavors, woody flavors or even tobacco. By aging it the flavors come together to form a singular flavor, one that’s much softer.”

Parson says that Escazu’s chocolate attracts a strong crowd of regulars, and with Valentine’s

The percent of women you will end their relationship if their significant other does not get them a gift on Valentine’s Day:

Day growing closer, it’s Escazu’s busiest week of the year.

“That week is nuts,” Parson said. “It’s the time we do the most themed items … hearts and various bars with Valentine’s things on them. We try not to do anything that’s really hokey, though, because it’s a serious product but at the same time we don’t want to take it too seriously.”

On Valentine’s Day there’s no better balance for a sweetie than a serious piece of chocolate sprinkled with a bit of whimsy.

Another bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the Raleigh area is Videri Chocolate Factory, located in the Warehouse District in downtown Raleigh.

Sam Ratto, co-CEO at Videri Chocolate Factory, along with his wife and co-CEO Starr, started making chocolate years before opening up the factory.

“I don’t know the nuts and bolts or the X’s and O’s about how chocolate makes you happy,” Ratto said. “People come in here, smell the air and smile. It’s amazing.”

“All you really need to make chocolate like this is a group of intelligent people excited about learning something new,” Parson said.

53%

SOURCE: STATISTICBRAIN.COM

The reality of love

2013 • LOVE & Sundry Topics

7

Lindsey Schaefer

saying, ‘Hello, how are you doing?’ every day.”

Nacoste has studied human relationships since 1978, and he said college students may While many say love comes with feelings of also struggle in relationships because of mawarmth, trust and attraction, in the begin- turity. ning, love is fragile and requires a lot of work “Young couples are fighting over movies, to grow. College life can make this especially that’s ridiculous, just say yes or no and move difficult. on,” Nacoste said.

“You meet people here, but you forget that However, society is also another challenge people leave,” Rupert Nalove must overcome to surcoste, professor of psycholvive. ogy, said. “You have to go.

“We are in a time where You had goals before you there are no dating rules, met that person.” there has been a shift,” NaStudents come from difcoste said. ferent places with differ“We used to live in a marent destinations, Nacoste riage system, but now we added. live in a relationship system; Rupert Nacoste, “[Couples] can be togethpeople are just spending professor of psychology er for two years,” Nacoste time together for intimacy.” said. “But at the end of their schooling career Although, Nacoste said he has some reserthey have to look at each other and say, ‘Uh, vations about college relationships, he said now what?’” if they are going to work, they require an While in college, some students try main- understanding of the realities of the college taining long-distance relationships. And after environment. college, graduates face a similar predicament.

“If you aren’t realistic, then everybody is However, these can be difficult for both people just going to get hurt,” Nacoste said. “You in the relationship. have to want to learn things about yourself “Long-distance relationships are always at and your limitations. It’s tough for college risk of failing,” Nacoste said. “Relationships students not just because they are young require interaction, face-to-face, if you don’t but because of the social environment being have face-to-face interactions then you just purely physical in its motivations.” have encounters.”

Love: A fantastical fantasy that happens And Skype doesn’t count. when two people have fallen for each other “I didn’t say face-to-Skype, I said face-to- romantically and trust each other fully. A face,” Nacoste said. “They are [at N.C. State] time in one’s life that is filled with twinkling with 36,000 people about the same age and eyes and unconditional love. Just one look at [with the] same sexual motivation ... They that special someone and your heart flutters. always have to hold themselves in check. You But sometimes it’s just that­— a fantasy. can’t keep the girl sitting next to him from Staff Writer

“If you’re realistic, then everybody is just going to get hurt.”

The average number of roses produced for Valentine’s Day:

196 MILLION SOURCE: STATISTICBRAIN.COM

GRAPHIC BY BRETT MORRIS

POEM BY NICKY VAUGHT

Lora Cretella A princess wrapped in royal garb, a raw-cut diamond worth no less sometimes seeming to always be dreaming of the company from a fellow noblesse

ned t sta nd, It just span She was a one-nigh in sk r ta n warm of he A year or two. The h ug ro e passing th Was ak in, To coffe e, So tritely, m e cit ex My lips to ank from the af fair, Suspect a ruse. I dr flair Craved the Of somet hing new.

But modern day practice and thinking have nearly vanquished thoughts of that kind when princes showed care for princesses fair fantasy forever maligned But there lies a hope, in the spark of his glance the glint in his eye and the spring in his step the slightest favors her heartbeat waivers the story unfolds once again

ec th But

I needed more caffeine, Such a fiend,

Such awful blues.

I quit coffee for tea, Variety, inconsistency, I can never keep up. dr of fee the W will n om ill ever, come back f rp. nev u er fi l l, My empt y c

Tales of love once locked in a book Two lovers joined forever She looks in his eyes that’s where it lies, Love’s timeless and honest endeavor

n

LOVE & Sundry Topics• 2013

The campus forum for the passionate

ai

8

Danielle Neujahr February will be month nine and I’m glad to say he’s all mine.

High school sweet hearts, I’d love him even if he shart.

On and off, off and on, I was pretty much a black swan.

We met in ROTC where everyone made out with everyone like a germ spree.

He came from the back country Tennessee and me the tanned girl from Port City The new kid in school, everyone treated him like a fool.

One thing they couldn’t see; he was a guy who was truly free.

GRAPHIC BY BRETT MORRIS

To Josephine Mark Herring I’ve studied the poetry of the best Putting my ability to woo you to the test Being a poet means being a lover And after falling for you, I’ll never recover Because you’re unlike all the rest

To Kelsie Trey Ferguson Looking amongst the stars I spot the planet Mars As I gazed I knew this fact I will love you to it and back.

fuzz and fur Darren Lipman fuzz and fur (and hearth and home) light like air and light alone (like buzz and burr and bare cologne a bulb, a brake (a scape with in) too narrow, bright too you and knocking, knocking, knocking two spark and sizzle, laugh and lock knife on knife) or sum on some burning, forced to fuze-cold slung bursting done

As I left for college, I lost sight of all my knowledge.

I wallowed in greed and got ran over by the “she’s easy” stampede.

Cheated on and used, my heart was more than just abused.

While I cried in the tall fescue, my Tennessee boy came to my rescue.

After waiting two long years, I built up my wall with fears.

He continued to wait, I asked “Is he my soul mate?”

Day 16 of May, we’ve been dating since that glorious day.

To find a guy so sincere, King Leonidas couldn’t break his spirit with a spear.

He’s my stars and I’m his moon; he makes my heart go boom boom.

GRAPHIC BY TREY FERGUSON