A Whiff of Hope for Hyposmia Victims

It was just last month that the FDA issued a warning to consumers that Zicam nasal cold remedy products might cause a loss of the sense of smell. From hyposmia (a reduced ability to smell) to anosmia (a complete loss of the ability to smell) the condition is difficult-to-impossible to treat, and affects some 20 million people in the United States alone. Read more

How Parents Use Olfactory Clues

Any number of olfactory studies have concluded that Mom and Dad are able to recognize their child by scent but, until now, researchers had no evidence as to how a child’s odor influenced the behavior of his parents.
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Korea’s Electronic Nose has a Human Touch

Researchers from Seoul National University have combined their expertise in biotechnology and conducting polymer devices to produce a first-of-its-kind “bio-electronic nose” which they hope will significantly improve our understanding of the human sense of smell. By mounting human olfactory receptor proteins Read more

More on DARPA’s RealNose Project

It’s been only a few months since the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) approved funding for the team’s MIT (microfluidic-integrated transduction) RealNose project, and began working alongside researchers worldwide, including MIT’s Media Lab and Department of Biology, to develop a “portable microfluidic device” capable of identifying a large array of odors. So, what’s the latest word on DARPA’s multi-institutional project? Biomimicry!
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Bad Prions make Cows Mad but Good Ones just make them Smell

Misfolded proteins called prions are the culprits blamed for such fatal neurodegenerative illnesses as mad cow disease. But, according to new research by electrophysiologist Stuart Firestein of Columbia University, the proteins in their properly folded form are vital to the sniffing skills, therefore survival skills, of animals.
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Inmates Prefer a Light Scentence

In Chapter 25 of Whiff!, Scent to the Slammer, the authors propose a novel approach to dealing with the tensions–even riots–which are frequently fostered in our overcrowded jails and prisons:
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Odortypes: Nature or Nurture?

Numerous studies have shown that, from mice to men, the bodies of mammals have genetically-determined signature odors, known as odortypes. But we also know that the type of food consumed by an individual can influence body odor. The question is, to what degree can diet alter this olfactory fingerprint? Could a fleeing fugitive throw the hounds off his scent by, say, pausing for a large lunch of garlic and onions?
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A Nose Fit for a Bionic Man

The mainstream use of Artificial Noses–which could conceivably replace drug, bomb, and even diabetes and cancer-sniffing dogs–may finally be on the horizon, thanks to biological engineers at MIT, who have discovered a way to mass-produce smell receptors in the laboratory. Moreover, the discovery may help researchers to understand how the sense of smell is able to recognize a seemingly infinite range of odors.
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Forensic Pathology Device Sniffs Out Dead Air

“The Body Farm,” as the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facility has been known since inspiring Patricia Cromwell’s novel, was opened in 1971 by Dr. William Bass, who recognized the need for research into human decomposition after police repeatedly asked for his help analyzing bodies in criminal cases. What began as a small patch of land where one body was allowed to decompose in the open air for the sake of science has developed into a 3-acre complex that contains remains of around 40 individuals at any given time. Now, the Knoxville facility has been recruited by Orange County detectives for help in their continuing investigation into the disappearance of toddler Caylee Anthony.

After cadaver dogs responded to an odor emitting from the white Pontiac found abandoned by the child’s mother, Orlando investigators tapped The Body Farm for assistance in testing air samples from the trunk of the car. Using a sort of “artificial nose” which pulls air through a tube into a spectrometer chamber, the scientists will be looking for the presence of certain chemical compounds that are released only by a decomposing body. “After we die and the bacteria proliferate in our body and start breaking down our Read more

Flies That Can’t Smell just Can’t Tell

Just how important is a good sense of smell in matters of romance? Well, for male fruit flies, it’s so vital that the absence of just a single olfactory gene renders them as indiscriminate in matters of courtship as my cousin Freddie (no offense, Freddie).

Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have found that male fruit flies without the gene Gr32a, a critical pheromone receptor, were sexually outperformed by four to one in comparison with normal male competitors. They also tended to court females which had been doused with male pheromones, behavior not observed in normal fruit flies because females which smell of male pheromones have presumably already mated. In fact, the hapless Gr32a-impaired flies were just as happy to court the male competitors themselves.
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