Fragrance and perfume

[Monomer]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Can A Smell Test Predict Parkinson's Disease?

Aroma Of Chocolate Chip Cookies Prompts Splurging On Expensive Sweaters

ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2008) — Exposure to something that whets the appetite, such as a picture of a mouthwatering dessert, can make a person more impulsive with unrelated purchases,

I read a paper on a study that showed that people spent more time, and therefore more money, in a restaurant with a lavender scent.

We suggest that the positive effect that the lavender scent had on the length of time spent in the restaurant was caused by its relaxing effect (Diego et al., 1998). Studies found that lavender increased drowsiness (Buchbauer et al., 1993) and induced sleep (Van Toller, 1988). Therefore lavender seemed to relax people which in return led them to stay longer in the area where this smell was diffused. Perhaps, this relaxation effect, in return, had an influence on expenditures; when relaxing, the customers ordered additional items including alcohol and/or coffee and thus increased the amount spent.

http://nicolas.gueguen.free.fr/Articles/IJHM2006.pdf

[Michaelangelica]

So evolutionarily (sorry) what was is the up-side for lavender plants in producing huge amounts of lavender oil?

Smelly Sounds: One Person Out Of Every 1,000 Has Synesthesia

ScienceDaily (Jan. 2, 2008) — Surprising as it may seem, there are people who can smell sounds, see smells or hear colours. One person out of every thousand has synesthesia, a psychological phenomenon in which an individual can smell a sound or hear a color. Most of these people are not aware they are synesthetes: they think the way they experience the world is normal.

Smelly Sounds: One Person Out Of Every 1,000 Has Synesthesia

[mynah]

Like most plants of the sage family, lavender is aromatic, rather than fragrant; i.e. the plant only smells when it is bruised and the oil is released. I once mistook a bottle of lavender oil for another containing medicine, and can confirm first-hand that lavender's culinary delights do not extend to its taste. Animals that attempt to eat the plant probably associate the unpleasant taste more powerfully with the plant (which is quite distinctive) because it is accompanied by the release of a particular smell, in much the same way that smelling a particular food when you are nauseous could put you off that food for a long time. (Admittedly, this is just my guess.)

[Michaelangelica]

Lavender Essential Oil isn't that bad . It depends abit on the variety you use.Some are very floral others more 'antisepticy'
In France they use a small angustifoloia variety to make delicious ice cream and ices. (In England this might be called dwarf Hidcote Lavender).
Lavender oil is also intoxicating if drunk

Many herb Essential oils are used to make flavours (Coca Cola a famous one) but the strength of the oils makes them too difficult (usually) to use in home cooking.

******************

I don't think I really "get" what this article is about.
Growth hormone also guides brain wiring
Anyone want to translate it for me?
03.26.2008 - Growth hormone also guides brain wiring
I understood this bit

Compared to the visual system, the brain's odour system is still poorly understood, but it appears to have its own uniquely ordered connections, Ngai said. The nose contains some 5 million nerve cells, each of which carries only one kind of odour receptor out of about 1,000 different odor receptors, each tuned to detect different chemicals or odorants. Nose nerve cells that detect the same odorant send their axons to the same region of the olfactory bulb, and it appears that neurons that detect similar chemicals, such as different alcohols, send their axons to nearby areas of the bulb.

Scientists previously had discovered that each of our two olfactory bulbs is divided down the middle between two mirror-image representations of the nasal odour receptors. Ngai and his colleagues found that IGF is responsible for setting up these mirror images within the bulb.

"IGF signaling is absolutely required for this mirror symmetry," he said. "In the absence of IGF function, you lose information from the sensory axons of the nose to one half of the bulb."


Airborne scent chemicals (inset) stimulate odor receptors in the nasal cavity, which send signals to the brain's olfactory bulb (yellow) located in the frontal lobe of the brain just above the nasal bone.
These connections are set up during early development when sensory nerves in the nose send axons into the brain (blue and gold) that target specific neurons in the bulb to create a map of sensory information that displays a mirror symmetry across the bulb’s midline (dashed line).
When IGF signaling is disrupted (right), the blue axons collapse toward the bulb’s midline, resulting in a distortion of this sensory map, demonstrating the critical role played by IGF in wiring the brain. (John Ngai/UC Berkeley; inset courtesy Nobel prize committee)

03.26.2008 - Growth hormone also guides brain wiring

[Michaelangelica]

Air pollution hurts a flower's fragrance, bees

Flowers1_2 Air pollution might be part of the reason why wild populations of some pollinators are declining in several areas of the world.

Humans aren't the only ones suffering from air pollution created by power plants and cars. Smog is destroying the aroma of flowers, which, in turn, makes it hard for pollinators to locate the flowering plants, according to a University of Virginia study.

Bees, which need nectar for food, are the principal pollinators for 80 percent of the world’s grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes, including about 90 crops in North America, a value of about $14 billion.

Julie's Health Club - Where alternative and mainstream health meet | Chicago Tribune | Blog | Blogroll

[Michaelangelica]

Birds Have A Good Sense Of Smell

The sense of smell might indeed be as important to birds as it is to fish or even mammals. This is the main conclusion of a study by Silke Steiger (Max Planck Institute for Ornithology) and her colleagues. The sense of smell in birds was, until quite recently, thought to be poorly developed.

Birds Have A Good Sense Of Smell

[modest]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Birds Have A Good Sense Of Smell

Birds Have A Good Sense Of Smell

That's really interesting. They determined this by looking at the genes related to smell. Apparently the more functioning smell-related genes an animal has, the better its sense of smell. It's amazing what we're doing with genetics these days.

~modest

[Michaelangelica]

A bit more genetics.
My children (Girls) are horrified that they should prefer a male who smells as bad as me!! he he.. (Why is there no icon for "stirring"?). This research seems to indicate the opposite?

PILL MAY PUT WOMEN OFF MR RIGHT'S SCENT
Contraceptive pills may disrupt women's innate ability to sniff out a genetically compatible partner, say UK researchers.
Pill may put women off Mr Right's scent (ABC News in Science)
It could ultimately lead to the breakdown of relationships when women stop using the contraceptive pill, as odour perception plays a significant role in maintaining attraction to partners," says Roberts.

The study also found women in relationships expressed a greater preference for odours of MHC-dissimilar and unfamiliar men, a result consistent with studies in birds.

Oral contraceptives combine two hormones, oestrogen and progestogen, to inhibit normal female fertility.

[Michaelangelica]

Wakin’ with bacon

Posted by Brad at 1:11pm Sunday, August 3, 2008

Tired of that old alarm clock waking you up every morning with that annoying beeping sound? Why not let your stomach wake you up, with the help of a different kind of alarm clock.

Geek.com explains:

Created by Matty Sallin, Daniel Bartolini, and Hsiao-huh Hsu, the Wake n’ Bacon alarm clock is different from your average variety clock in that it doesn’t use sound or harsh vibration to arouse a weary sleeper. Rather, the unit cooks a slice of bacon for you to fill your bedroom with the smell of breakfast.

The way it works is that a person puts a slice of frozen bacon into the tray of the clock before going to bed. In the morning, the alarm clock then activates ten minutes before the alarm time and turns on two halogen lamps which slowly cook the bacon. Ten minutes later you are supposed to wake with the delicious smell of cooked pork in your bedroom. If that doesn’t do the the trick, then a backup alarm sounds to wake the individual.

Wakin’ with bacon: Brad Neese: Living Large in Oklahoma
See also
15 August broadcast on
New South Wales: TGIF August 8 2008

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Wakin’ with bacon: Brad Neese: Living Large in Oklahoma

I guess you'd have to be very careful while blindly reaching for the snooze button or you might end up smelling more than cooked bacon.