Mirrors have always played a role in romance. The primping and preening. The practiced puckers. Now science has found a link between mirror images and lust – or, more precisely, between mirror images and “musth,” the state of sexual arousal in animals.

New research shows that a chemical secreted from a gland in aroused male Asian elephants comes in two mirror-image forms. A few atoms poke out in one direction in one form and in the opposite direction in the other form. One form tells females that the male secreting it is young, of low status and perhaps not worth dating, while the other form signifies high social rank and sexual appeal.

The chemical is an odor molecule first isolated from a beetle that uses it to signal others. In recent years male Asian elephants have been found to exude the stuff, suggesting it may play a colognelike role in males looking for mates.