smell (Page 3)

What would the holidays be without those familiar scents?the fresh spruce tree, peppermint candy canes, mulled cider? But alas, some of these smells can be torture for those of us who carry a specific gene.

We know that smells trigger memories and the absence of holiday smells would confuse our brains. Neuroscientist Tyler Lorig says that our sense of smell is central to our ability to make sense of a particular experience. If, for instance, you walk into a room with a nice, fresh evergreen tree and there is no odor to it, or the odor is not what you expect, that experience will not make as much sense to you.
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But it’s more dangerous NOT to smell! – Our lives are filled with manufactured smells: a study of 6 top-selling laundry products and air fresheners shows that these products emitted dozens of different chemicals, and all of them gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but NONE of those chemicals was listed on the product labels.

Researcher Anne Steinemann says, “I first got interested in this topic because people were telling me that the air fresheners in public restrooms and the scent from laundry products vented outdoors were making them sick, and I wanted to know, ‘What’s in these products that is causing these effects?'”
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Pollution really ruins the joys of life: we know that air pollution is making it hard to breathe and affecting birds (but in a positive way), and now it turns out that it’s reducing the scent of flowers as well!

Air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the fragrance of flowers. Not only does this affect the beauty of nature, it also makes it harder for insects to find the flowers they need to pollinate but, as researcher Jose D. Fuentes says, “This makes it increasingly difficult for pollinators to locate the flowers?and the more air pollution there is in a region, the greater the destruction of the flower scents.”
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Scientists don’t understand exactly how we identify the many odors we smell every day. Biologists have found evidence that while we may not be consciously aware of it, people can sniff out the chemical signals of sexual attraction. Aromatherapists say that they can create a bubble bath that improves memory, a kitchen cleaner that wards off nausea and gives us energy, and a scented handkerchief that can calm a claustrophobic patient who has to have an MRI.

BBC News reports that a team of US scientists has discovered a whole new class of receptors lining the inside of the nose that are used by mice (which are more like us that we may want to admit) to detect pheromones, the sex hormone scents that are released by their mates. These are also found in humans.
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