Let’s face it, sex is weird. And gross. And the reason you exist. And the driving force behind the world’s technology. And you love it, don’t you, you filthy, filthy pervert?

Human beings have developed some very strange sex habits, and it’s easy to look at something like, say, nasolingusts (nose lickers) and wonder, simply: why? But the science behind sex practices is actually fascinating.

The oft-repeated “Rule 34” states that for every action there is an equal and opposite porn version of that somewhere on the Internet. If that’s so, then Rule 35 states that for every sexual quirk and preference, there is also a team of scientists studying that exact quirk on lab rats and college students.

We’ve come a long way since the days of Alfred Kinsey and this article looks at all the best guesses about what’s happening down there from today’s top biologists, psychologists, sociologists, and dominatrixes. After examining the science of sex, it turns out our sex practices may not be so strange after all; there’s generally a very reasonable scientific rationale behind why you like what you like. Not that you’re not still a disgusting monster, just that you’ve probably got company



