1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:05,960 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Flow Your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, wasn't it stuff to blow your Mind? 3 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:16,319 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamp and I'm Julie Douglass. And 4 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:18,320 Speaker 1: before we started recording this episode, we were just talking 5 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,919 Speaker 1: about yoga studios, which ties in nicely with today's episode, 6 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: which is of course about body odor. What body odor 7 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: can tell us, because I find it. When I noticed 8 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: body odor, it's generally two different situations. One is, I'm 9 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:34,480 Speaker 1: on the train and there's a lot of body odor 10 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:37,240 Speaker 1: going on, and it's generally an unpleasant situation because I 11 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 1: realize I'm way too close to a lot of people 12 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:42,199 Speaker 1: and some of them smell varying degrees of bad or rancid, 13 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 1: and sometimes there's a there's some spoiled pants in there 14 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,160 Speaker 1: as well, I'm sure, but there's also a body odor 15 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: component to it. Whereas after a yoga class, who good 16 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: yoga class, there's also a kind of a um, you know, 17 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 1: a milange of body odors in the air as well. 18 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 1: And I tend like that because it's kind of a 19 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:04,840 Speaker 1: kind of a hey, we all just worked out, kind 20 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:08,840 Speaker 1: of a smell, and generally, and maybe maybe arguably, the 21 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: body odors. The individual body odors I'm picking up in 22 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,800 Speaker 1: that yoga class are simply better body odors. Is that 23 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,960 Speaker 1: possible that that these are healthy body odors that I'm 24 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: picking up on the train or unhealthy body odors? So, 25 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:24,479 Speaker 1: in other words, on the train you get a cross 26 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:26,759 Speaker 1: section of humanity, right, And some of them I'm sure 27 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:32,959 Speaker 1: smell fabulous, but then some maybe on death's door possibly, 28 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:35,679 Speaker 1: But in a yoga class, for the most part, you 29 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:38,040 Speaker 1: probably have a lot of healthy people working out, and 30 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:41,040 Speaker 1: maybe that contributes to your sense that what you're smelling 31 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 1: is quite good. Yeah, And I don't know, Lamb, I 32 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:48,960 Speaker 1: don't know. Actually if there's some interesting information that may 33 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:52,360 Speaker 1: support that um and we'll get into that, but before 34 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:54,800 Speaker 1: we do, we should probably just sort of review the 35 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: fact that we all have this invisible cloak of odor 36 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: on us at all time times. An odor artist Cecil 37 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,640 Speaker 1: told us, who I think, it's just the greatest thing 38 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 1: since Slice bread says that we are carrying a database 39 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: of smells around with us at all times, on her bodies, 40 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: in her hair, and in our clothing, and these culminate 41 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:19,839 Speaker 1: into a kind of autobiography of smell. This is the 42 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 1: smell artists the German lady. Yes, yes, yes, the woman 43 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: who has collected seven thousand different smells, the woman who 44 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: went to this high falutint gala wearing like this crazy 45 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 1: gorgeous dress, looking like Marilyn Monroe on steroids, but then 46 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 1: doused herself in molecules of dog crap just so that 47 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: when she had interactions with people, she could um, you know, 48 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:55,360 Speaker 1: both elicit their they're sort of like gross response, but 49 00:02:55,440 --> 00:03:00,200 Speaker 1: also through our visual process have people come to her. Right. 50 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:01,920 Speaker 1: And she was the lady that was on the panel 51 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: we saw the World Science Festival years back, uh, and 52 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: she she was the most interesting person on the panel 53 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 1: for a number of reasons. But one of the things 54 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:12,840 Speaker 1: I always come back to is her argument that we 55 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: don't give our children enough language to describe smell. That 56 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:20,760 Speaker 1: we have a very limited vocabulary genuinely generally speaking on 57 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,919 Speaker 1: an individual level and also just linguistically as a whole 58 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:26,920 Speaker 1: when it comes to describing smells, So we end up saying, oh, 59 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: well that's stinky, or oh that's that smells gross, when 60 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:33,679 Speaker 1: there's really there's a lot more nuanced than any given uh, 61 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:36,680 Speaker 1: comparing any given smell to another. Right, because you always 62 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: take a shoe with stinky cheese. Right for you, it's 63 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: not stinky, it's delightful blue cheese. Right, or at the 64 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 1: very least, we should use a different term to describe 65 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: cheese that is maybe a little too pungent for us, 66 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: you know, uh, and even pungent. I feel like pungent 67 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:55,240 Speaker 1: is a better word for the cheese, but it's not 68 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: necessarily the best. I mean again, language kind of fails 69 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: us to an extent when we start trying to describe 70 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:06,400 Speaker 1: the complexities of the scent world that we live in, well, 71 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: it might fail us because you could make the case 72 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,800 Speaker 1: that humans really got the short end of the smelling stick. 73 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:15,360 Speaker 1: And if we don't have the full spectrum of smell 74 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: smells available to us, then we might not have the 75 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: full spectrum of language to describe them. This is a 76 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,280 Speaker 1: metaphorical smelling stick, not the one that a like a 77 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: third grade or might bring up to you and tell 78 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: you to smell one end of it. As far as 79 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,280 Speaker 1: I know, and would you smell it if they offered it. 80 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: Absolutely never smell the smelling stick. So one of the 81 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: examples of how we got the short end of the 82 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:41,039 Speaker 1: smelling stick is that no two people smell things the 83 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: same way. Yeah, this is really fascinating because, I mean 84 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:49,440 Speaker 1: it matches up perfectly with with experience, because we're always encountering, 85 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:51,600 Speaker 1: you know, people who don't like a smell that we like, 86 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,679 Speaker 1: that we think that we think of smells is too strong, 87 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: and they love it. I mean, just think of individual 88 00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:00,040 Speaker 1: perfume that you walk into a house, and they'll be 89 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:02,919 Speaker 1: a particular odor that is it might be an instance, 90 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:05,960 Speaker 1: it might be some sort of a cleaning product, and 91 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,520 Speaker 1: to our noses is just too much, it's just too abrasive. 92 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,279 Speaker 1: But to the other person, that's a pleasant smell to 93 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:14,080 Speaker 1: wrap your life in. And and indeed, when you start 94 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: looking at the genetics of the situation, um, it's it's 95 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:22,359 Speaker 1: pretty startling. According to the Thousand Genomes Project, they're about 96 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:25,839 Speaker 1: four hundred genes coding for the receptors in our noses, 97 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,719 Speaker 1: and there are more than nine hundred thousand variations of 98 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:32,919 Speaker 1: those genes. So, given odor is going to activate a 99 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: suite of different receptors in the nose, creating a specific 100 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:38,599 Speaker 1: signal for the brain, and that signal is gonna going 101 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 1: to differ from individual to individual. Yeah. Hiroaki ma Tsunami 102 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:47,159 Speaker 1: at Duke's School of medicine and his colleagues found that 103 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,880 Speaker 1: between two people about of the odor receptors are different, 104 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:53,800 Speaker 1: and they think that's probably on the low end actually 105 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:57,039 Speaker 1: bearing out this idea that you smell, the smells you 106 00:05:57,080 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: detect and the smell I detect could be very different. 107 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:04,039 Speaker 1: And so then that gives you this idea that we're 108 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: not even all working off the same page when it 109 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: comes to smell, right, it kind of gets down to 110 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:11,000 Speaker 1: that classic argument, you know, what if what if the 111 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:14,040 Speaker 1: color I see as our engine call orange actually looks 112 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:16,800 Speaker 1: very different to you? And that's generally generally a kind 113 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,640 Speaker 1: of abstract discussion to get into, because how do you 114 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: really break that down and improve it? But in this 115 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:24,880 Speaker 1: we see we see far more concrete evidence for the 116 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,039 Speaker 1: for the for the notion that, yes, each person, me, you, 117 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:32,279 Speaker 1: the listener out there right now, we're all living in 118 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:36,400 Speaker 1: slightly different sensory worlds, because again, the world we live 119 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:40,640 Speaker 1: in is ultimately just this, this this picture of of sight, sound, 120 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:43,159 Speaker 1: and smell that we form in our minds based on 121 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:46,280 Speaker 1: the information of feeding into our skulls, through our through 122 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:50,560 Speaker 1: our organs, and uh, the the final product is slightly 123 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:53,200 Speaker 1: different with each person. It's kind of like the whole uh, 124 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:55,640 Speaker 1: you know, blind men in the elephant scenario. So, yes, 125 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:59,960 Speaker 1: of the sensory landscape, the human smell landscape is very 126 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,560 Speaker 1: different from person to person. In addition to that, the 127 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:06,360 Speaker 1: reason why bloodhounds may be much better at seeking out 128 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:09,359 Speaker 1: sense and identifying them is because in humans were a 129 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: bit hamstrung, and Professor Dorin Lancet of the Wiseman Institute's 130 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: Molecular Genetics department discovered that more than half of these 131 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:20,440 Speaker 1: genes and humans contain a mutation that prevents them from 132 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: working properly. Yeah. These are the the olfactory genes involved 133 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: in the recepting these different smells. Yeah, so it's kind 134 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:29,000 Speaker 1: of weird that we would have these but they'd be 135 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:32,240 Speaker 1: shut off. But there's another study that has come out 136 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: that that gives us a reason for why that may be. Yeah. 137 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: This is a March three, UH study from the proceedings 138 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 1: of the National Academy of Science. Uh. The scientists looked 139 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: at the obvious question that arises from from from door 140 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:48,920 Speaker 1: and lance it's u previous findings, and that is what 141 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: what what? What's the deal with this genetic loss? Uh? 142 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:54,360 Speaker 1: Is it relatively old phenomenon that affects all primates or 143 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:58,440 Speaker 1: only occur in humans. And they they looked at they 144 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:00,720 Speaker 1: looked at the data, and they were able to conclude 145 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: that the drop and sharpness of spell is indeed a 146 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:08,320 Speaker 1: purely Homo sapien feature. Uh, and it probably stems from 147 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:11,560 Speaker 1: the development of our brain. Our brain ends up developing 148 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:16,240 Speaker 1: to depend more and more on visual data uh than 149 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:18,480 Speaker 1: it does on anything else where. When it comes to 150 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 1: navigating the world around us, both the physical world and 151 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:25,880 Speaker 1: the social world. We're depending more on distinguishing colors uh 152 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: and the you know, remembering faces, etcetera, compared to simply 153 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:33,480 Speaker 1: going off on what does that person smell like? You know, 154 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:37,719 Speaker 1: Not to be crass, but from an evolutionary perspective, the 155 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: more bipetle we got, the less we were on all fours. Yeah. 156 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:44,559 Speaker 1: The less we are on all fours, the less sort 157 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:49,280 Speaker 1: of sense we might be butting up against. Oh well, yeah, 158 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:51,680 Speaker 1: I guess that would be a decent argument to make 159 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:55,240 Speaker 1: less less butt sniffing, if you will. Gosh, can you 160 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:59,199 Speaker 1: imagine mass transit that that was not bipeedle. Well, you 161 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:01,360 Speaker 1: know you say that, uh, you know, bear in mind 162 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: that on any given train, some people are setting down 163 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: and some people were standing up. So there are a 164 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,840 Speaker 1: lot of people that end up with strangers butts or groins, 165 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:11,079 Speaker 1: you know, just right there in front of their faces. 166 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:14,880 Speaker 1: So we haven't managed to get away from a completely 167 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:17,520 Speaker 1: In fact, public transportation is in a in a way, 168 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,400 Speaker 1: kind of a return home I returned to form. Suddenly 169 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:24,720 Speaker 1: we are forced to, uh maybe not actively, but passively, 170 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: uh you know, smell the rump and nether regions of 171 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,280 Speaker 1: the stranger on the train, and those rumps, those nether 172 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 1: regions are telling us something. And we're gonna take a 173 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: quick break when we get back. We're gonna find out 174 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:46,200 Speaker 1: what that is. All right, we're back. Before we start 175 00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:49,600 Speaker 1: talking about humans smelling other humans, we've got to talk 176 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,240 Speaker 1: about dogs smelling humans. I mean, and I'm not just 177 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,120 Speaker 1: talking about like, you know, a dog bounding into the 178 00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:59,240 Speaker 1: room and automatically attaching it's nose to your crutch. I 179 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:02,440 Speaker 1: am talking about dogs that are actually ferreting out certain 180 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:08,280 Speaker 1: sense that might portend uh your degree of health or illness. Yeah, 181 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: obviously dogs live in a far richer uh smell world 182 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:15,440 Speaker 1: than us poor humans. I mean, anyway, if you've ever 183 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:17,920 Speaker 1: owned a dog, you know that they've basically just set 184 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:21,600 Speaker 1: around just going crazy with the smells in their general vicinity. 185 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:22,920 Speaker 1: And if you get them in a car, I mean 186 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:25,320 Speaker 1: that just must be like uh, you know, for for 187 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:27,360 Speaker 1: a dog putting it's his or her head out the 188 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:30,320 Speaker 1: window and smelling, it must be like that scene in 189 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:32,679 Speaker 1: UH in two thousand and one, a Space Odyssey where 190 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 1: all the lights start flashing past past your eyes. You know, 191 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 1: it just must just must be a psychedelic experience for them. 192 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,240 Speaker 1: And so it shouldn't come as any surprise that dogs 193 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:46,680 Speaker 1: have been been observed to detect certain cancers by smelling 194 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:50,120 Speaker 1: breath and urine samples. The latest research, published in two 195 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:53,600 Speaker 1: thousand eleven in the journal Gut, showed a laborator retriever 196 00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:59,400 Speaker 1: trained in cancer scent detection correctly identified of breath samples 197 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:02,480 Speaker 1: and ninety seven percent of stool samples from patients with 198 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: colon cancer. And of course that's because there are biochemical 199 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,319 Speaker 1: changes that would give a person a different scent, which 200 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:13,280 Speaker 1: would we think largely be undetectable by us humans. But 201 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:16,000 Speaker 1: there are a couple of studies out there that give 202 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:18,440 Speaker 1: us this idea that we might be picking up on 203 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:24,160 Speaker 1: things subconsciously. And I'm thinking about this this one research project, 204 00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:27,280 Speaker 1: This is from the Caroline Scott Institutete, and they wanted 205 00:11:27,320 --> 00:11:29,439 Speaker 1: to see if humans could detect illness and one another 206 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:32,319 Speaker 1: through smell. They had eight healthy people who were injected 207 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:36,720 Speaker 1: with either Libo polly saccharide, bacterial toxin that produces a 208 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:41,079 Speaker 1: really strong immune response, or just saltwater, which doesn't have 209 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:45,200 Speaker 1: any sort of immune response. And four hours later, just 210 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:48,920 Speaker 1: four hours later, the researchers cut out the sweaty pits 211 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: of t shirts that participants had been wearing and stuffed 212 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:53,800 Speaker 1: them into bottles. And of course you know what they 213 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:58,240 Speaker 1: did with those bottles, They inflicted them on test subjects. Yes, 214 00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 1: forty universe these students had those bottles shoved up under 215 00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 1: their noses and they had to smell these samples and 216 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:10,440 Speaker 1: rate the intensity, pleasantness, and the perceived health of the odor. 217 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:12,920 Speaker 1: And what were the results. While the researchers found that 218 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:18,000 Speaker 1: when the students identified samples that were really intense or unpleasant, 219 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:21,160 Speaker 1: it turned out that those were in fact the the 220 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:26,400 Speaker 1: individuals who had who had been injected with the bacterial toxin. 221 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,920 Speaker 1: And moreover, the greater immune response to the toxin, the 222 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:35,280 Speaker 1: greater the unpleasant reading the sample received. Right, So, so 223 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: what's happening here is that in a sense, you're anytime 224 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:41,520 Speaker 1: there's an infection in your body, there is a battle 225 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:44,400 Speaker 1: in your body. Uh you know, their their enemy troops 226 00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:46,959 Speaker 1: on the field. So you're a moon immune function sends 227 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:48,960 Speaker 1: out troops to do battle with them, and you end 228 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:50,880 Speaker 1: up with what with with what a lot of dead 229 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:53,440 Speaker 1: soldiers on the field, and then those dead soldiers are 230 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:55,320 Speaker 1: flushed out of your body. This is a very simplistic, 231 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,560 Speaker 1: uh explanation and simplistic metaphor, but essentially it's changing the 232 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:03,480 Speaker 1: rest of of your excretions. And then too, if you 233 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:05,559 Speaker 1: could actually pick up on the smell of the excretion, 234 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: which which this particular study seems to show that we 235 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:12,360 Speaker 1: can at least subconsciously pick up on those smells, then 236 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:16,079 Speaker 1: we are picking up on the dead from that battle 237 00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:19,240 Speaker 1: over the infection. Right. There's there's a real message that's 238 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 1: being communicated there. And if you doubt that, think about 239 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:26,320 Speaker 1: this next study, which is all about STD and sweat. 240 00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:29,280 Speaker 1: It's a Russian study from the two thousand and eleven 241 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:32,400 Speaker 1: issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, and again it 242 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:36,200 Speaker 1: involves armpit sweat and the human smell response we'd get 243 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:40,080 Speaker 1: armpit sweat collected from thirty four Russian men ages seventeen 244 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:43,040 Speaker 1: to twenty five. Now, thirteen of the men had gone rhea, 245 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:46,880 Speaker 1: sixteen were healthy, and five had gone a rhia in 246 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:50,240 Speaker 1: the past, but where they had recovered. The men were 247 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:52,920 Speaker 1: t shirts with cotton pads in the armpits for one hour. 248 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: Then the pads were placed in glass vials. Eighteen women 249 00:13:56,559 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: sniff the vials and rated the pleasantness of the smell 250 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,120 Speaker 1: on a ten point scale. Now they were given some 251 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 1: words to pick out from a list to describe the aromas. 252 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:11,120 Speaker 1: So they had putrid, floral, vegetative, woody, minty, and fruity 253 00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:15,640 Speaker 1: as descriptors. The women rated the infected men's sweat as 254 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,440 Speaker 1: less than half as pleasant as a healthy men's sweat. 255 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:22,480 Speaker 1: And the women said about of men who had gonorrhea 256 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:26,560 Speaker 1: had sweat that smelled putred, whereas only the healthy men 257 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:28,600 Speaker 1: were described as a putred. And of course this all 258 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 1: makes perfect sense, right because if if an STD or 259 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: just a simple you know, bacterial infection, you know, whatever 260 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 1: the scenario, if some sort of of of health situation 261 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:41,840 Speaker 1: causes your sweat to smell differently, then that is a 262 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: cue to other members of your species that hey, there's 263 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:49,160 Speaker 1: something wrong with this particular individual. They might not be 264 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:52,520 Speaker 1: the best mate, they might even be an individual I 265 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:56,080 Speaker 1: need to distance myself from within the community, uh, to 266 00:14:56,240 --> 00:15:00,400 Speaker 1: avoid and infection myself. Yeah, I mean the messages disengaged, engaged, 267 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,400 Speaker 1: something off. This is a potential other even within my 268 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 1: own community. Yeah. And to underscore this idea, just to 269 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:08,760 Speaker 1: make sure that they had a little bit more data 270 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:11,400 Speaker 1: to press this up against, they found a link between 271 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: the concentration of disease fighting proteins called antibodies, of course, 272 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,480 Speaker 1: and the men's saliva and how pleasant they're sweat smells women. 273 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:22,760 Speaker 1: The higher the antibody concentration, the lower the score. So 274 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:27,080 Speaker 1: again we have that correlation there. Now you think about 275 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,400 Speaker 1: this study and you think, well, is it possible that 276 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:33,480 Speaker 1: you know the this this wasn't a great representative of 277 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:38,000 Speaker 1: noses smellingness. I mean, after all, they were all women. 278 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 1: It turns out that you would want a woman doing 279 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: the armpit smelling, specifically a woman, because they may have 280 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:50,120 Speaker 1: better detection of smells. Exactly, according to a two thousand 281 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:54,600 Speaker 1: nine research from the Monolf Center. Uh, it's it's more 282 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:58,080 Speaker 1: difficult to mask under arm odor when women are doing 283 00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:01,880 Speaker 1: the smelling. Uh So, not only are women better smellers 284 00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:04,960 Speaker 1: than men, but male odors were harder to block than 285 00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:09,040 Speaker 1: female odors. Uh So, this this is interesting because it 286 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,200 Speaker 1: it gets back into the the situation we all encounter 287 00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 1: when we're walking through the store and we're looking at 288 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 1: the various under armed deodorants, and we might it's easy 289 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:20,080 Speaker 1: to think, well, what's the difference, Well, what's the difference 290 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:22,280 Speaker 1: between the women's deoterant and the men's deodorant? Like, it's 291 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:24,800 Speaker 1: we all have armpits. Why does it matter? Why does 292 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 1: one smell stronger? Why does one need this fragrance? And 293 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:33,400 Speaker 1: one needs some of its cultural right? Yeah, because otherwise 294 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 1: we just all be using acts and we call it 295 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:38,960 Speaker 1: a day. Right. Well yeah, except that, Um, a couple 296 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,560 Speaker 1: of things. One is that again, guys cannot detect smells 297 00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:46,840 Speaker 1: as readily as women can. And to test this, they 298 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 1: gave some of the women and some of the men 299 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:52,560 Speaker 1: pure under armed wet and then some sweat that had 300 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: been mixed with another scent. And here's what happened. When 301 00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:59,880 Speaker 1: fragrance was introduced, Only two of thirty two cents to 302 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: fessively blocked under armed odor when women were doing smelling. 303 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:08,879 Speaker 1: In contrast, nineteen fragrances reduced the strength of underarm odor 304 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:14,800 Speaker 1: for men, so it's not as readily apparent to men that, um, 305 00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:19,000 Speaker 1: there you know that some sweats might smell. In other words, 306 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,560 Speaker 1: that the detection isn't there. And in addition to this, 307 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: the actual male odors that are omitting these molecules are 308 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:32,119 Speaker 1: harder to block than female odors. So there's there's a 309 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,680 Speaker 1: case there for a different kind of concentration, a different 310 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:39,680 Speaker 1: kind of smell in men's deodorance versus women's deodorance. Well, 311 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:41,960 Speaker 1: this this brings me back to the train again, where 312 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:45,160 Speaker 1: UH any kind of public transportation system, you're gonna have individuals, 313 00:17:45,119 --> 00:17:47,840 Speaker 1: while reaching up to grab onto a bar or strap, 314 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:51,880 Speaker 1: exposing that armpit perhaps to the face of other UH 315 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,800 Speaker 1: passengers on the train. And in that situation you find 316 00:17:54,840 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 1: individuals who are both tragically lacking in UH in fragrances 317 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:01,719 Speaker 1: as other than their own body odor. And then you 318 00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:05,760 Speaker 1: have individuals who seem to be way overachieving UH in 319 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:09,600 Speaker 1: terms of their their their personal perfume. Yeah. I worked 320 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,960 Speaker 1: at a place once where, um, the majority of people 321 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:16,359 Speaker 1: that were there did not use deodorants. And really didn't um. 322 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:18,480 Speaker 1: They felt like it was part of the expression of 323 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:22,000 Speaker 1: them themselves. And this was a printing room, it was 324 00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:26,080 Speaker 1: very hot, and it was just a swirl of fetted 325 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:30,760 Speaker 1: armpit stink. But I wonder if if this information, if 326 00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:33,840 Speaker 1: this would mean that that females are they going to 327 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:39,040 Speaker 1: be more inclined to use an overabundance of deodorant or perfume, 328 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: Since if they're going to have a heightened sense of 329 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:45,240 Speaker 1: body odor, then it seems like they might be more 330 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,040 Speaker 1: inclined to overuse, or at least use an amount of 331 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:52,480 Speaker 1: perfume that would be interpreted by US males as too 332 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:55,200 Speaker 1: much perfume. If they better detected them, maybe they would 333 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:58,320 Speaker 1: avoid certain ones um. But there, I guess you could 334 00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:00,560 Speaker 1: make the case that they could enjoy certain sense more 335 00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:02,359 Speaker 1: and there that's right. We have to go back to 336 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,480 Speaker 1: our original statement about how everyone's sense of smell is 337 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:09,359 Speaker 1: slightly different everyone's since world is a little bit different 338 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:12,480 Speaker 1: from the next, and that's probably why we're just constantly 339 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,719 Speaker 1: encountering people who are using too much perfume or not 340 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: enough perfume, too much body uh deodorant or not enough. 341 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:23,439 Speaker 1: It's because everyone is is everyone has the knobs on 342 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:27,880 Speaker 1: their their their stink speaker adjusted in a slightly different way. 343 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:30,720 Speaker 1: Now I'm not bringing up the pheromone angle here because 344 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,120 Speaker 1: this is different. That's a that's a whole other color thing, right, 345 00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:37,719 Speaker 1: which is pretty controversial. But if you think about it, 346 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,000 Speaker 1: you could take say match dot com, and you could 347 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:44,960 Speaker 1: splice it with armpit samples to gauge at someone's relative 348 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 1: health and you might be able to get a greater 349 00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:50,959 Speaker 1: match here. And I was thinking about this because I 350 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: was thinking about the hologenium theory that we've talked about before. 351 00:19:55,520 --> 00:20:00,359 Speaker 1: Um Eugene Rosenberg took some flies and it was a 352 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:03,520 Speaker 1: single species of flies, and he cultivated them two different 353 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:06,640 Speaker 1: groups on two different diets, brought them back together to 354 00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:09,080 Speaker 1: try to find out if they made it, and they 355 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:13,840 Speaker 1: found that that bacteria and their guts changed the mating 356 00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: preferences of those flies. So when I'm thinking here, of course, 357 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:21,399 Speaker 1: this is really all ground breaking stuff too, because this 358 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,160 Speaker 1: is what drives we think this is a possible explanation 359 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:26,800 Speaker 1: for speciation. So I'm also thinking that you use splice, 360 00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:31,080 Speaker 1: you know, sort of like I like peanut coladas and 361 00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 1: getting lost in the rain, along with armpit smell and 362 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:37,800 Speaker 1: diet and maybe you could get the most accurate match 363 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,560 Speaker 1: with a made possible. Well, you know, apparently that is 364 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:44,560 Speaker 1: a new trend that some some folks are exploiting. Is 365 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:48,480 Speaker 1: they smell based speed dating system. Sometimes they even market 366 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:52,480 Speaker 1: is a pheromone based speed dating system. But again that 367 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,520 Speaker 1: that's a complicated issue, like cuddle up to someone's armpit 368 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,119 Speaker 1: or oh no, if I remember correctly, it's based in 369 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:00,800 Speaker 1: you know, smell samples, like you in an old shirt 370 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 1: and they're kind of putting a pile and you kind 371 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:05,560 Speaker 1: of root around in the pile and decide which smells 372 00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:07,760 Speaker 1: appeal to you more. And then that's used as like 373 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:14,200 Speaker 1: the first level of elimination in choosing potential mates. Interesting, well, 374 00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 1: I kind of feel like if it were that easy, 375 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:20,919 Speaker 1: then the whole mating and dating process would be pretty 376 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:24,560 Speaker 1: like black and white. Yeah, so, I I just don't 377 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:26,679 Speaker 1: think if we're there. I think that's one of the 378 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:31,199 Speaker 1: things that colors our perception of people. But obviously we 379 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:33,280 Speaker 1: hope that we're deeper than the smell when it comes 380 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,159 Speaker 1: to connecting with another person. Oh yeah, well, I mean 381 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:38,760 Speaker 1: any given smell, there's so much more than just the 382 00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:40,879 Speaker 1: there's the sense experience of the smell. But then there's 383 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:44,280 Speaker 1: the additional information we're ringing to the scenario, the ideas 384 00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:46,560 Speaker 1: about what the smell is. That's what we talked about before. 385 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,240 Speaker 1: You'll have a smell of a fine cheese and an 386 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:53,200 Speaker 1: athlete's uh, you know, sweaty foot, and the smells can 387 00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:56,120 Speaker 1: easily be confused with each other. But the context, that's 388 00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:59,159 Speaker 1: what that's what's key there, because that's what makes the 389 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:06,480 Speaker 1: he's merely pungent and the foot grotesquely stinky, you know. Um. 390 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:09,399 Speaker 1: In Paris a couple of years ago, I took a 391 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:12,840 Speaker 1: perfume making afternoon workshop and I got to create my 392 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,960 Speaker 1: own scent and I did, and I decided that it 393 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:20,000 Speaker 1: smells actually like my husband's arm pit. I called it 394 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:22,480 Speaker 1: like husband down pits or something like that. And the 395 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:27,000 Speaker 1: person who was leading the workshop was horrified. Um, probably 396 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,200 Speaker 1: for a couple of different reasons, and one of them 397 00:22:29,359 --> 00:22:31,479 Speaker 1: definitely had to do with the scent. And then then 398 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,040 Speaker 1: everybody passed it around and they got that look on 399 00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,160 Speaker 1: their face like they were smelling an armpit. I thought 400 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:39,119 Speaker 1: it was delightful, though, well there you I mean, it 401 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:42,040 Speaker 1: all comes down to context, It all comes down to 402 00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:44,639 Speaker 1: the different sense worlds that we each live in as 403 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:47,160 Speaker 1: far as smell goes, and possibly other senses as well, 404 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:51,119 Speaker 1: but but we can definitely say so with smelled. All right, 405 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:53,520 Speaker 1: So there you have it, a little insight into the 406 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:57,000 Speaker 1: world of a body odor and how it can help 407 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:01,439 Speaker 1: as root outs who's healthy, who's not, and maybe who 408 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:03,960 Speaker 1: is who's meant to be our soul man. That's right, 409 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,480 Speaker 1: your body order your destiny question mark. So I know 410 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 1: a lot of people are gonna have some interesting tidkeets 411 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,919 Speaker 1: to share about this episode. We all have noses, we 412 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:15,600 Speaker 1: all use them to varying degrees, so let us know 413 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:17,320 Speaker 1: we would love to hear from you. You can get 414 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:20,200 Speaker 1: in touch with this a number of ways, uh, generally speaking, 415 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:22,240 Speaker 1: if you have any question and I'll go to stuff 416 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,280 Speaker 1: toboll your mind dot com. Uh. That is our homepage. 417 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,480 Speaker 1: That is where everything begins and ends. That's where we'll 418 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,120 Speaker 1: find our blog posts, our videos, all the podcast episodes 419 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 1: links out to our various social media accounts. Be sure 420 00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:37,080 Speaker 1: to check out our YouTube page mind Stuff Show. UH 421 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 1: follow that become a fan there. That helps us to 422 00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,520 Speaker 1: to help support the show, but it also allows you 423 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:44,800 Speaker 1: to instant access to these videos as we roll them 424 00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:48,240 Speaker 1: out and in the meantime, we'd love to hear from you, guys, 425 00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:51,280 Speaker 1: and we'd love to hear your fragrant, fetted thoughts, and 426 00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:54,280 Speaker 1: you can send them to blow the mind at Discovery 427 00:23:54,400 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thou sms of 428 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:09,000 Speaker 1: other topics, clisit How staff works dot com. H