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When you're in love, everything seems different – and that includes your sense of smell. Women who are deeply in love struggle to recognise the body odour of male friends, but their ability to distinguish their partner's smell is unaffected.
— from Love skews your sense of smell at New Scientist, with many thanks to Jirish for the link!
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The smell of fear, one of the most terrible cliches of pulp fiction, is founded in fact, scientists claim today.
People can unconsciously detect whether someone is stressed or scared by smelling a chemical pheromone released in their sweat, according to researchers who have investigated the underarm secretions of petrified skydivers.
— Read the rest at The smell of fear is real, say scientists at the Guardian.
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It’s true that if you eat a lot of what’s fondly dubbed the stinking rose, others might notice a faint whiff of eau de garlic in your sweat. But even the pungent bulb can’t mask your natural scent. In fact, scientists from the Monell Center in Philadelphia say that an individual’s scent is impossible to mask through food. They published this research in the online journal Public Library of Science One.
— From Body Odors Individual as Fingerprints, today's 60-Second Science podcast at Scientific American.
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A perfume may be developed for male kakapo in a bid to make them more attractive to the opposite sex of the endangered species.
This follows research into why some males of the native parrot have greater pulling power than others.
— From Kakapo perfume could get them breeding at stuff.co.nz.
Babies will smile when they catch the scent of vanilla, but a whiff of rotting meat will send them into fits. From people to mice and flies to worms, animals of all kinds are born with likes and dislikes thanks to the evolutionary wisdom collected in their genes. But new research shows that some preferences are still surprisingly flexible at even the most basic level - that of the sensory neuron itself - and that our nervous system may be even more adaptable than we thought.
— From Beyond recognizing odors, a single neuron controls reactions at News-Medical.net.
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CATCHING the whiff of a nearby massacre has a strange effect on spider mites: it sends them straight to sleep.
Asked to rate the pleasantness of their dreams, those who had smelled roses recorded positive feelings while those who had sniffed rotten eggs reported a negative dream experience.
— Quotes are from The smell of death sends mites to sleep and Sweet smells make for sweet dreams, respectively, both from New Scientist.