ABSTRACT:
Researchers believe that love at first sight is not just a cliche. A chemical reaction which may lead to romance can be created when one person first looks at another. A mix of natural chemicals and hormones may explain why opposites attract, mismatched couples success and some
couples survive the worst situations.

TEXT:
The couples on the following pages prove what researchers now know: Romance, quite literally, requires a certain chemistry. Love at first sight is no apocryphal cliche. Writer Nuna Alberts reports that researchers now know why one glimpse of the right person can let off a chemical reaction leading to romance. But what happens after what? Why do some relationships succeed while others fizzle? That may be more magic than science. Claudia Glenn Dowling visits with 10 famous couples who have overcome time and trials: depression, the death of a child, cancer, the stress of public life. Through it all, their marriages have survived--even grown stronger. "Need is the thing that holds a marriage together over the long haul," says actor Carroll O'Connor. "If the need stops, the marriage stops."