Finding love will always have some form of physical component. But with the huge increase in online dating, it’s easier than ever to dismiss people based on looks alone. That’s why some apps have been attempting to take photos away from the forefront of online dating and crack the code of true romance — without relying on appearances. In doing so, these apps offer some surprising ways to connect with new people and reboot the lost art of flirting.

Waiting for that lightning strike of love? You might soon be able to start the storm. Oxford ethicist Brian Earp — whose work delves into the science behind drugs like MDMA that trigger feelings of love — argues that we could manufacture those feelings in the coming years. Earp’s research could have even stronger implications for falling out of love: If you were able to stop having feelings for an abusive partner, or even just an ex you need to stop Instagram-stalking, would you?

Another industry is developing to provide new ways to cure heartbreak. In the future, when you get dumped you’ll sign up for breakup bootcamps or retreats (which are already popping up across the world) or download apps that give you advice on how to mend. Couples will even engage in specialized concierge services to help them unravel their finances and retirement plans. Feeling heartbroken? Find out how a new swath of dating experts, breakup consultants and other services can help you rebound.

Even in the darkest situations you can help the people you love the most. Aditi James’ husband, Sunil, was the kind of guy who never forgot anyone’s birthday — even though he was away at sea with the merchant navy. But one time she didn’t hear from him, and learned his ship had been attacked by Nigerian pirates. And after Sunil was jailed on suspicion of colluding with the pirates, she knew her husband’s fate rested in her hands. 

Sometimes a prison ends up being the right place to find that special someone. Lonna Lisa Williams was teaching the high school equivalency course inside California’s High Desert State Prison for male felons when she found love. “I never expected to find something valuable there. Certainly not someone,” she writes of a prisoner named Jose, who had already served 13 years for gang-related crimes. And so began a secret love affair, with the two exchanging clandestine smiles and love letters inside the prison’s walls.

Like most great love stories, the one between Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyas and Dr. Carl von Cosel had a twist: it started after Elena’s death. After the 21-year-old died of tuberculosis in von Cosel’s care in Florida, the lovesick physician would sneak into her mausoleum at the Key West Cemetery to spend time with the corpse of his beloved. But the obsession didn’t stop there: It continued for years, including after the depraved doctor stole Elena’s body from the cemetery.

Happn is a French dating app that uses geolocation technology to tell you if you’ve crossed path with other users — a 21st-century solution to connecting with that cute guy you locked eyes with on the subway but never spoke to. Of course, it’s had to adapt in in some interesting ways during the pandemic, given how few people are crossing paths with one another these days.

According to new research, women are more likely to hate their exes than men are. In a lot of cases, that has to do with who’s held responsible for the breakup. With women more likely than men to be physically or psychologically abused in relationships, it’s no wonder they aren’t that fond of their former partners. But part of it also involves an interesting connection between permissive sexual attitudes and a positive feeling toward a former lover.

People with autism often find connecting with others in traditional ways to be a challenge, and that includes dating. A few intrepid entrepreneurs — some with autism themselves — are creating internet spaces for people on the spectrum to find love and to learn what love can look like.

We’ve all been there. Your lover jumps over the side of a boat into the Nile River, so you make him an immortal god. OK, maybe just Roman Emperor Hadrian has been there. Hadrian built a city dedicated to his deceased lover Antinous, had coins minted with his visage and commissioned statues that portrayed him as Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife. Soon a cult following developed that was so powerful that it nearly beat out Christianity as the new state religion of Rome. 

The (married) Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, 21, ran off with Mary Godwin when she was just 16. They were finally able to wed when Percy was freed from the shackles of marriage … after his wife drowned herself in London’s Hyde Park. But Percy and Mary’s tumultuous partnership also ended when the poet drowned a few years later. Still, it helped produced some literary masterpieces, including Mary’s classic Frankenstein, which she conceived while on vacation in Switzerland with Percy and Lord Byron in 1816.

At midnight on May 3, 1916, two young lovers wed in the bowels of Ireland’s Kilmainham Gaol. By first light, Grace Gifford was already a widow. Her husband, Joseph Plunkett, who had been helping plan a rebellion against British rule, was executed by firing squad just four hours after the ceremony. Their brief marriage’s tragic end made Gifford the face of the burgeoning resistance — and propelled her to surprising heights in the Irish War of Independence from 1919 to 1921.