This is joint work with E. Amerik. We show that for many cubic fourfolds defined over a number field K, there is a number field L such that the L-points of the variety of lines F(X) are Zariski dense in F(X). These varieties F(X) have Picard number 1 (for K3 surfaces, there is no example with Picard number 1 known to satisfy the above density property, while it is conjectured to always hold). The proof involves among other things the $l$-adic Abel-Jacobi invariant of a certain cycle and a result of Green-Griffiths-Paranjape.