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The first dating service to use lab-based genetic profiling launched online last week. Scientific Match promises to pair up people who will be physically attracted to each other because their DNA is different.

Well-matched couples will like each others' natural scents, have more fun in bed, and bear healthier children than those who are genetically similar, the company claims.

The service, available only in the Boston area, charges $1,995 for a year-long subscription.

"I strongly believe this will dominate the future of dating services," said founder Eric Holzle, a mechanical engineer.

Members swab their cheeks and send in saliva samples. A lab spends two weeks analyzing the immune system genes, and then the company matches individuals with genetic profiles that are unalike.

"We look at six specific genetic reference points on DNA, and none of those six can match to make a match," Holzle explained.

He was inspired by a well-known "sweaty T-shirt" study of a dozen years ago, in which biologists found that women liked the smell of dirty shirts worn by men who were immunologically dissimilar to themselves.

As with other online dating sites, Scientific Match's users can fill out written profiles and upload photographs. Genetic details are not displayed, except to indicate a match. The service runs criminal background checks to exclude anyone who has committed crimes involving violence or identity theft.

Scientific Match is open to straight and gay people. However, women taking the birth control pill are turned away because some studies show they are more attracted to men with similar immune system genes.

The success or failure of the service can't be measured, however, with only a handful of customers so far. Although Holzle doesn't guarantee finding one's true love, he insists that people paired by Scientific Match will at least smell appealing to each other.

The romantic role played by scent is well-documented in poetry and science. Perfumers even add synthetic versions of pheromones, suspected aphrodisiacs found naturally in the body, to fragrances that include Paris Hilton's eponymous perfume.

But the ability to bottle attraction or to predict it through genetic profiling remains unproven by science.

Scientific Match sounds more like pseudoscience to Dean Hamer, the molecular biologist and author credited with discovering "gay genes."

"That sounds like a complete and utter rip-off that preys on people's lack of knowledge of causation and correlation," he said, adding that people could wrongly write off a potentially great mate due to genetic discrimination. "Why don't they just smell their underarms?"

Nevertheless, entrepreneurs are sure to try to capitalize on advances in genomics and biotechnology to reshape the landscape of high-tech matchmaking. The field is wide open. For instance, nobody has tried to set up couples based upon genes that have been linked to promiscuity or libido strength.

And Googling a date's full genetic code could be on the distant horizon. The cost of sequencing someone's DNA has dropped to the low six figures.

The latest online services to incorporate genetic testing include startup 23andMe, Ancestry.com, and the Genographic Project, which sell swab-and-send testing kits for uncovering the deep roots of a family tree.

The CNN article about the Aqua Dots product recall says:

U.S. safety officials have recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots bead toys that contain a chemical that has caused some children to vomit and become comatose after swallowing them.

We immediately did our own product recall, removing the unsafe toy from our house last night after our daughter went to bed. But how did this product get into our house in the first place?

You get asked out at a party, but you can't help but wonder if the guy is actually the stable, reliable charmer he appears to be. A new SMS and Web-based service called PlayerBlock lets you sneak off with your cell phone, send a text message and get the dirt faster than he can say, "How 'bout a movie?"

(Credit: PlayerBook.com)

Based on the highly optimistic starting assumption that "people cheat and lie while dating and in relationships," PlayerBlock claims to be the first ever text-based service that enables romance seekers to investigate the dating habits of others (the Web already hosts similar date- and fidelity-tracking sites).

PlayerBlock members (who pay $4.99 per month for up to 100 messages) are encouraged to report both positive and negative dating experiences, with their insights then linked to the phone number of the tattled-on party.

"Did your date go well? Did you get played? Did they call when they said they would? We want to know! Tell us your innermost thoughts--don't let your neighbors get fooled just as you did," urges Global SMS, a privately owned company based in South Florida that came out with PlayerBlock.

Beyond the "Report a Player" and "Check a Player" features, the PlayerBlock service allows members to "Watch a Player." With that feature, Global SMS hopes to increase the audience beyond the dating arena and into the relationship space.

Potential for abuse of such a service, of course, is immense, as heartbreak and personal grudges could lead people to slam the objects of their frustration as a matter of vengeance. Then there's the subjectivity factor. After all, one person's player could be another person's inamorato--or something like that. And any truly poorly behaving lothario or lotharia could easily swap cell phone numbers regularly to avoid being associated with a negative charge.

The PlayerBlock service is currently supported by wireless carriers including AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile. Others, including T-Mobile, will be coming soon.

Ah, whatever happened to the simple days of meeting at the sock hop?

It's a match made in Heaven.

Catholic Match announced Tuesday it acquired the assets of CatholicDaters.com. The parties, as expected, are gushing like newlyweds.

"It became clear, after some initial discussion, that an acquisition made sense," beamed Catholic Match co-founder Brian Barcaro. And CatholicDaters' founder, Andrew Weyrich, glowed: "Catholic Match embodies many of the values and concepts that were important to us at CatholicDaters."

But hey, this is America, where 50 percent of marriages end up in divorce. So Catholic Match has its work cut out for it in making the most of the union.

(Credit: Apple)

Not much else to say here, other than that Apple has made it official that the iPhone will be released on June 29. That's a Friday. This means, depending on your affiliations, that you can either breathe a sigh of relief that after the 29th you'll optimally stop hearing annoying iPhone rumors, or you can stop speculating and focus on raising that $600 to feed your addiction. Now go!

(Via Engadget)

UPDATE on 6/4: Some weeks after this item was posted, Apple revealed its release date for the iPhone: On the first Sunday in June, the company said the iPhone would be available June 29 and began running a series of ads featuring the device.

ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE: Ever since Steve Jobs' keynote at the Macworld Expo in January, we've known that the iPhone is being released sometime in June. But we haven't known exactly when.

Now Cingular is confirming that the release date will be June 11. A customer service manager at Cingular (we called 800-947-5096 and were transferred to sales) gave us that date late Thursday, but, alas, said he didn't have any additional information beyond that.

That date is no coincidence. It's the first day of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, scheduled to be held in San Francisco from June 11 through June 15. (Incidentally, the agenda includes a focus on Leopard, the next generation of OS X that's supposed to be released sometime in the second quarter of 2007.)

Rumors have been swirling about the iPhone release date. One blog pointed to a release date of June 15 based on alleged documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission, but those have been shown to be a hoax.

Here's some information from our sister site, CNET.com, about the iPhone.

The popularity of online dating sites has soared as people become more comfortable with the idea of meeting someone online. But that popularity can have a double edge: looking online can mean millions more potential mates, but can also mean millions more rejections.

Dating sites have added new features that let users rate one another. But that's brought about "an emerging caste system, where highly rated daters see a lot of action, and others are deemed undateable," according to a Wall Street Journal article (subscription required). Some are being tagged for poor behavior or unattractive photos. But others are being scorned for seemingly innocuous attributes like an unpopular ZIP code.

"They're not liars or criminals, but eligible single men and women who are being sidelined by the system. They're hitting the wrong note by listing hobbies that scream shut-in--fantasy football for men, scrapbooking for women--or by including shots with their heads obscured by skydiving helmets," the article says.

But there are worse things then being unpopular on an online dating site--you could see your name end up on DontDateHimGirl.com.

Blog community response:

"When it comes to actual online dating, this piece, researched as it is, seems more mythic than actual to me....there are great bits of advice on how to do a good profile (shameless plug) but on-site popularity just isn't a critical factor for people looking for a genuine fit."
--Susan Merrit's Blog

"What do I conclude from this? I'm glad I'm married. ;)"
--Adam's Blog on Foxbase Alpha

"Sounds like eBay; a broken feedback system that encourages mutual backscratching (with the threat of mutually-assured destructive bad ratings as its counterpart). The whole thing sounds like an ebay-style pseudo-popularity contest, to be honest."
--Digg.com