Scents and Scentsibility

"I'd read that the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia concluded that two scents, pumpkin pie and lavender, were the most attractive to men."

What, was bacon not available to these guys?

Rather fond of Ammonium Nitrate and Diesel fuel with just a splash of mayhem for a morning pick me up myself.

Evenings, I 'm more of relax by a crackling tire fire kind of guy.

In comparison to vision and hearing, the sense of smell is very poorly understood. Light is easily sorted into colors and sounds into frequencies, but it is very difficult to classify odors.

An interesting read on the subject which I enjoyed and highly recommend:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14546.The_Emperor_of_Scent

I'm glad to know you enjoyed this book; I've put it on my vacation reading list. In the course of researching this blog post, I watched a TED talk given by Luca Turin, the subject of The Emperor of Scent. His notion of how scent is transmitted is by waves, similar to light, and the talk was a brief exposition on this (controversial) theory. Considering how important the sense of smell is to animals, our lack of understanding does not seem to have attracted as much research as other senses.

Turin's theory is that part of the sense of smell is somehow tied up with the infrared resonances of the odorant molecule.

This theory can be tested by replacing hydrogen with deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen. Deuterium weighs twice as much as hydrogen but is chemically identical, varying the molecular resonances without changing the shape of the molecule.

There is some evidence that these deuterated molecules "smell" different than the unmodified molecules. Unfortunately, smells are subjective and it is difficult to prove an effect that cannot be recorded with scientific instruments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibration_theory_of_olfaction

I ordered a copy of the book and I think I'll read it before vacation. This is getting increasingly interesting.

Is the vibrational theory of scent compatible with the Nobel research describing why different scents smell different, and the multiple combinations of scent sub-particles that result recognizable scents? I sense (no pun intended, but I'll take it) another blog post coming on. Thanks, Rixter, for your input, most intriguing.

Link to TED talk:

https://www.ted.com/talks/luca_turin_on_the_science_of_scent?language=en

We have an essential oil diffuser in our home, and while working from home I'll often use it to create a more pleasant atmosphere. I typically use peppermint, as it's supposedly the only oil that "cleans" the air, but I'll sometimes use more robust ones like tea tree oil or frankincense. I'll have to pay more attention to my productivity next time I diffuse some peppermint...there might be a correlation for me.

On the other hand today's been an unusually productive day, and my house smells like cat litter and dirty dishes...maybe the productivity's in my head, not my nose.

Ironically, I finished writing this long-overdue blog post during an unusually-long stretch of focused attention ... at the office, devoid of any aromas other than whatever was emanating from the break room. Sometimes l'eau de la litiere isn't all that bad.

Perhaps the more apt question is whether a scent can induce concentration when one is having an ADD attack. That's something with which I could easily experiment.

Barbecue pork ribs smoking on the fire.....vanilla...citrus...fresh cut grass....fresh cut wood....beach....honeysuckle in bloom....gardenia flowers....

Growing up on a farm, the Smell of freshly baled hay, milking done, 7:00 in the evening, 80 degrees with a nice breeze, as your walking through the yard was very relaxing.

I eat lunch at my desk every day at work. Mexican, Thai, Greek etc.

I light a coconut candle after I've eaten the lunch to kill any latent food odors.

zest of lemon, will do just wonderful.

The worst scent you can ever smell is from a person beside you. Who's got the dynamite in his underarm. I mean, it's not common in colder countries, but if you've been to southeast asia. It's really a scent to start up the morning with bad luck.

The nicest scent, I like is from a teen virgin aroma early in the morning(there is a french movie on this, I just forgot the name). Other than that Basil, lemongrass and lavender are top on my list. And, freshly brewed beer before I forget.

Some are sniffers of dirty laundry

I was in an unconditioned conference room with our salesman who must buy his cologne by the Gallon. That should come close.

Like Sex Panther

The crap they sell women and call it perfume has to be some of the most offensive smells on the market. Some would more fitting to be used as a bear attack deterrent than a man attractant. Avon is at the top of my list, it's worst than a burning cigarette or an old ash tray! And, I still smoke! They are the reason hospitals, medical offices are fragrant free areas.

I was once told, "the smell was all in my head" Low and behold, their right

"the smell was all in my head" Are you sure about that? I see you have a problem with your nose.

Try this one

"The crap they sell women and call it perfume has to be some of the most offensive smells on the market. Some would more fitting to be used as a bear attack deterrent than a man attractant."

Part of it might be the AMOUNT being used. For example, if you can follow a man's path through a busy office an hour after he as walked through, solely on the lingering odor of his after shave, then tell that man it's time to CUT DOWN ON THE AQUA VELVA!

"Avon is at the top of my list, it's worst than a burning cigarette or an old ash tray! And, I still smoke!"

Those two sentences do not make a strong statement for your case. Smokers tend to be almost completely 'nose-blind' to the odors of smoking. Allow me to provide a non-smoker's point of view: The smell of 'old ashtray' is everywhere on a smoker, it's in their hair, in their clothes, on their skin, in their breath. Even lust living with someone who smokes in the house can contaminate the non-smoker's hair and clothes, and that takes MONTHS to wash out, months of hot showers in a smoke-free building. Smokers reek of 'old ashtray' so much it's hard to believe they find it distasteful.

"They are the reason hospitals, medical offices are fragrant free areas."

Considering the range of products in 'natural' perfumes, and the variety of chemicals in 'synthetic' scents. A key reason is that strong perfumes can trigger allergic reactions, or trigger epileptic fits. Another reason is that almost all perfumes and after-shaves use an alcohol-based carrier, and that becomes very dangerous in an area that might have an elevated oxygen level.

Part of it might be the AMOUNT being used.

Agreed.... make-up application is the same way.

I dated a girl way back in the 80's, and the perfume she had was always pleasant. I do not recall what it was when I asked her. But a few months back, I caught a scent of it, sure brought back a lot of fond memories.

Which was on a documentary I watch where scent can trigger memories.

As my mother has gotten older, and her sense of smell has gotten less sensitive, she's prone to using way too much eau de cologne -- enough that it rubs off on my dogs and the dogs smell like Aromatics Elixir for a day or so. They don't seem to mind though.

Some smell like Ben Gay.

as far as .... They don't seem to mind though.

I know of people that got skunked..... and after a while, they don't even notice the smell.

I knew a girl in college, that her dad's hobby was getting skunk scent that he bottled and sold to area sportsmen's stores, and she would help him at night.... She embarrassingly told me this, when I made a comment to her that I faintly smelled skunk. That she helped her dad the night before to collect skunk scent (from road kill), and it didn't go well.

I was so surprised by her, I never pictured her to be the outdoorsey type, and was actually impressed. I asked if she owned a boat too.

Tho I still smoke I haven't lost my sense of smell, I used the old ash tray example because they do stink, even to me.

I agree, some men do use excessive amounts of aftershave and colognes and they can and do trigger reactions in people, I suffer sever headaches round perfumes and colognes.

As far the alcohol base carriers, you would have to apply the alcohol in an O2 rich environment, less than 25ft from the source. And if the O2 concentration is any higher- they have more worries to be concerned about, at that point any product containing petroleum or the flick of a light switch could/ would be explosive.

"Tho I still smoke I haven't lost my sense of smell, I used the old ash tray example because they do stink, even to me."

It can be a matter of degree; you may find the old ashtray malodorous to sit next to, while I find it unpleasant to be across the room from it.

I also have had good evidence from a former smoker about the differences.

My parents used to both smoke, and after they divorced, my father quit. After my brother and I moved into our own place, Dad commented that we both smelled a lot better, that the lingering odor of cigarettes weren't following us around anymore. We had never noticed the odor clinging to ourselves, because it was so faint compared to the lingering odor throughout the house.

it interesting about cigarette smoke, and its something that I notice.

It not so much now, because a lot of towns banned smoking in public spaces, but when I was in my 20's, and go out to the taverns, smokers would leave their burning cigarettes butts in the ashtray. And if you watch the smoke (if the ventilator filters weren't up to par) the smoke from these cigarettes would float to the nonsmokers but rarely if at all to the smokers.

When it happens to me, I always snuffed them out. Which at times got things pretty interesting with the smokers and me.

I always wonder if it had something to do with ionic attraction of the smoke to the nonsmokers (because they didn't smoke) may have with this.

I have recently been watching a programme on TV, Quantum physics in nature. There was a chapter on smell, and they touched on the fact that smell is a product of quantum physics, that affects the resonances of the odorant molecule.

They also mentioned a test, that was done where they replaced hydrogen with deuterium in a scent molecule, of a plant frequented by fruit fly's, and found that it changed the scent of the plant. It was then found that the fly's would avoid the plant who's scent molecule had deuterium instead of hydrogen atoms.

Just one extra point, I recently read an article, that stated, that people that have no sense of smell where psychotic?

I may have seen that, or something simular... there was one that actually says that the ability of smell (scent) is pretty complicated.

A little off topic,....have to be careful, there are some members that are against learning basics on documentary's. I myself think its not only relaxing but informative also. Its just hard to reference a documentary show.

I have lost most of my sense of smell, but the voices tell me I am not psychotic.

Yes my sense of smell has also almost gone too. When I first migrated to Australia I developed mild asthma, being exposed to new plant smells. The condition slowly cleared over a period of time, as it did so, so did my sense of smell. From the above information, smell seems to affect one's mental processes? Body functions? Therefore is the loss of smell part of the body immune system?

Rixter suggested a book, The Emperor of Scent, about Luca Turin, an advocate of the quantum-physics explanation of the sense of smell. My copy should arrive tomorrow. I put a link to Turin's Ted Talk somewhere in my blog post; it's short (15 minutes) and fascinating.

As to whether people with anosmia are psychotic, check out the Monell Chemical Senses Center's anosmia research. People without a sense of smell might not necessarily be psychotic but they certainly miss a lot of the good stuff in life.