What do you generally do when you're stressed? Maybe have a warm cup of coffee, hoping that it would give you a relief? Science says all you need to do is sniff your romantic partner's shirt.

Yes, all those "sniffing sweater" scenes you have seen in romantic movies actually work. In fact, a recent study published this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has found that anxious women had lower stress levels when they smelled shirt their partners had worn.

— Read more in Sniff your stress away: Study shows the best way to get your zen back on stressful days at International Business Times.

These elements—cold weather, humidity, and a stimulated trigeminal nerve—combine to create something that isn’t an odor, but a sensory experience you’ve come to associate with snow. That’s why when asked to describe the scent, people often use words like “clean,” “fresh,” and “cold"— a.k.a. things that don’t have much of a scent at all.

— Read the longer explanation at What’s Really Happening When You "Smell" Snow at Mental Floss.

In a study to be published in the journal Nature Communications online Nov. 14, researchers at NYU School of Medicine found that odorants—chemical particles that trigger the sense of smell—need only reach a few signaling proteins on the inside lining of the nose for the mice to identify a familiar aroma. Just as significantly, researchers say they also found that the animals' ability to tell odors apart was the same no matter how strong the scent (regardless of odorant concentration).

— Read more at Mammal brains identify type of scent faster than once thought at Phys.Org.

But what happens to your sense of smell if you have trouble with emotions?

The researchers found that individuals with medium-to-high levels of alexithymia* showed a greater physiological response to the odors— their heart rates sped up and skin conductance increased — compared with individuals with low levels of alexithymia.

— Read more at What Your Nose Can Reveal About Your Emotions at LiveScience…

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