From the loneliness of long-distance love to the practicality of new relocation services. Sally Goodman looks at solutions to the two-body problem. If this month's Valentine's card gets delivered in the post rather than by hand, it's likely that you are one of the thousands of scientists who has chosen, for better or worse, to live far apart from your loved one to pursue your career. The rigours of scientific life mean that most researchers end up hitched to one of their own clan, creating a 'two-body problem'. A recently published European study on mobility in the scientific labour market showed that, of those scientists in a relationship, some 70% had chosen another scientist as their partner (L. Ackers Women's Stud. Int. Forum 27, 189-201; 2004). Other studies in the United States have identified similar levels of relationships between scientists.
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