Babies Smell (see Olfactory Fact #132)…Even Before They’re Babies!

The Scent of a Woman may have played a more integral role in your conception than just your father’s appreciation of your mother’s Chanel No. 5, according to a 2006 Indiana University Bloomington study. Noting that sperm have olfactory receptor proteins similar to receptors in the nose which attract them to “the site of the action,” the research team constructed a device which fed mouse sperm into a chamber through one tube, ovarian chemicals through a second, and a control buffer solution through a third.
The results?
The snooty sperm tended to turn up their noses at the placebo and navigate right toward the real thing!