Fragrance and perfume

[Michaelangelica]

Fragrance and perfume is such an interesting sense

 

 

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/061116_perfume-monkeys.htm

 

 

"Long before it's in the papers"

November 18, 2006

Monkeys using perfume? Study investigates

 

Nov. 17, 2006

Special to World Science

Move over Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana and other purveyors of glamor perfumes.

The next rage in fragrance may be Eau de spider monkey.

 

Scientists have been reporting sightings of wild spider monkeys rubbing themselves with chewed-up leaves that may function as perfumes. Although it’s unproven that they do it specifically to take on an aroma, mounting evidence points that way, the investi*gators say.

 

Black-handed spider monkey (courtesy rainforestanimals.com)

The scents “may play a role in the context of social communication, possibly for sinal ing of social status or to increase sexual attractiveness,” scientists wrote in the Nov. 14 ad*vance online issue of the research jounal Primates.

 

In the report, Matthias Laska and colleagues of the University of Munich Medical School in Germany described watching a group of 10 free-ranging black-hand*ed spider monkeys for a total of 250 hours.

 

The species, formally named Ateles geoffroyi, is one of four species of spider monkeys—small, acrobatic primates that fling themselves among treetops and live between southern Brazil and central Mexico.

[HydrogenBond]

The leaves might also be used as a mosquito repellant. It was hard for the males to do an affect mating dance when they can't help showing aggression due to slapping mosquitos. The she-monkeys may interpret all that hitting as indication of a future abusive realtionship. Just having some fun.

[ughaibu]

Do both sexes use leaves from the same part of the same tree?

[moo]

The leaves might also be used as a mosquito repellant. It was hard for the males to do an affect mating dance when they can't help showing aggression due to slapping mosquitos. The she-monkeys may interpret all that hitting as indication of a future abusive realtionship. Just having some fun.

ROFL :)

 

"20 episodes of self-anointing, that is, the application of scent-bearing material onto the body," all by two males.

 

Lol, leave it to the guys... :)

 

moo

[HydrogenBond]

Another possibility is that the leaves smell like food the females like to eat, thereby created an association between food and themselves. It can also be an "Italian Shower syndrome". After a hard day swinging in the trees, the males are too lazy to bath but want to smell good for the ladies. The compromise is deordorant. I am just showing how easy it is to project human traits into unconscious behavior. No offense to Italians.

[moo]

Actually it may not be much different from a dog wallowing on something dead he's found (and usually brought home of course). Well, perhaps the smell is different, but my point is that both may have found something they really like and just can't seem to get enough of. :)

 

But then I've also been practically teary-eyed from passing too close to little old ladies with a similar penchant for perfume... :)

 

moo

[Michaelangelica]

A friend told me about this last week and now I find it in the paper

Luca Turin is a fragrange guru and revolutionary, I gather.

Both books look like interesting reads.

 

In his book The Secret of Scent, biophysicist Luca Turin says smell is mysterious, not because we believe it to be unreliable, but because we don't understand how it works.

He explains that each scent is based on a molecule, and that each molecule smells different. The problem, he says, is that "we don't know how our nose reads them. Hundreds of times each week chemists somewhere on earth make a new molecule.

Every time it is an absolute mystery what each molecule is going to smell like. It is as if each new molecule were an inscribed clay tablet with a word written in an unknown script and a smell to go with it, like banana or rose or musk.

The pile of tablets is now enormous, so big in fact that no one can have smelled more than a fraction of the total, and we still don't understand how the things are written.

The smell is encoded in the molecule using a cipher. Like all good mysteries, it is hidden in plain sight. It has, if anything, deepened as our knowledge of smell has increased.

Like most enticing enigmas it is simply stated: what is this chemical alphabet that our noses read so effortlessly from birth?"

 

Turin has proposed a controversial theory of smell, which he explains in his book. Turin's journey is also described by journalist Chandler Burr in his book, The Emperor of Scent.

Both books evoke, in their own way, the sensory world of smell, its paradoxes and mysteries.

And both are concerned with the practical difficulties experienced by fragrance designers - commercial artists - working in a world that has come to be dominated by a science that remains imprecise.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/beauty/good-vibrations/2006/11/23/1164476103819.html

[Michaelangelica]

More about Turin's book here

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/books/review/Lanchester.t.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1165285985-rFEuWuBac50L7ewnSdy3DA

Luca Turin’s engaging new book follows this form, but doesn’t feel at all like something we’ve read before — which is a tribute both to its subject and to its author. “The Secret of Scent” is about one of the great mysteries in science, one that is not just under our noses (like all the best mysteries), but actually inside the nose. That mystery is smell, and specifically the way the brain interprets molecules as smells. No two molecules, however similar their chemical structure, smell identical. Why not? As Turin asks, “What is this chemical alphabet that our noses read so effortlessly from birth?”

 

Science thinks that it has answered this question, and that the answer has to do with the shape of a molecule: the geometric arrangement of its atoms determines its smell. Turin disagrees.. . .

 

Turin has an extraordinary gift for writing about smell. Before he became interested in the science of smell, he was that rare thing, a brilliantly readable perfume critic. He is a biologist by training, based in London after a peripatetic career that eventually led him to the business of fragrance chemistry. He first fell in love with perfume while working in France, via an encounter with a Japanese perfume called Nombre Noir: “halfway between a rose and a violet, but without a trace of the sweetness of either, set instead against an austere, almost saintly background of cigar-box cedar notes. At the same time, it wasn’t dry, and seemed to be glistening with a liquid freshness that made its deep colors glow like a stained-glass window.”

 

Blimey. There is no unpretentious way of writing about smell;

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/books/review/Lanchester.t.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1165285985-rFEuWuBac50L7ewnSdy3DA

Turin thinks our sense of a molecule’s smell, rather than being based on its shape, comes from its wave vibration. This theory has been around for a number of decades but has suffered from the lack of a plausible mechanism by which it might work. Turin’s suggested mechanism is based on a quantum phenomenon known as “inelastic electron tunneling,” and it is no easier to understand than its name. The nose has (this was discovered in 1991) 347 scent receptors; these, he thinks, function as a spectroscope, each of them responding to a specific frequency of molecule, and translating them into what we perceive as a smell.

[Michaelangelica]

WOW :cup:

Look at this new research!

The World Today - Scientists use smell tests to detect brain disorders

Scientists use smell tests to detect brain disorders

PRINT FRIENDLY EMAIL STORY

The World Today - Tuesday, 5 December , 2006 12:46:00

Reporter: Annie Guest

ELEANOR HALL: A new study published today reveals that when it comes to degenerative brain disorders, the nose knows.

 

Australian scientists are promising a new era in the detection of brain disorders like Alzheimer's, with diagnosis through smell tests.

 

The University of Melbourne team has discovered a link between an inability to identify odours and at least five diseases, as Annie Guest reports.

 

ANNIE GUEST: People with mental illnesses are often shunned. Sometimes an inability to care for their hygiene needs further isolates them.

 

But it was that very problem that was the genesis for the research by Associate Professor Warwick Brewer.

[moo]

Fascinating! I wonder if the sense of taste might be similarly affected?

 

My Dad suffered from Alzheimer's and reached a point where he would eat quite a lot of jalapeno peppers (pickled slices) by themselves if allowed.

 

This behavior showed up after we were well aware of the disease though, so I have no idea at what point his perception of taste might have begun to change. :doh:

 

moo

[Michaelangelica]

Fascinating! I wonder if the sense of taste might be similarly affected?

Fascinating, 'cause taste is mainly smell

 

I am sorry for your father.

Alzheimer's is a dreadful disease.

We must find a cure or find out why it is happening

 

A friend said that Shakespear's "King Lear" was a classic case of Alzheimers

She felt Shakespear must have had a relative with Alzheimers

[Chacmool]

WOW B)

Look at this new research!

The World Today - Scientists use smell tests to detect brain disorders

Very interesting! My sense of smell is certainly affected by some of the things going on in my brain.

 

Firstly, I am extremely sensitive to virtually all perfumes and various other fragrances. Being in a room full of women, each with her own brand of perfume, talcum powder, body lotion and hairspray, is absolute torture for me. Some of the smells give me an immediate migraine. Sadly, some flowers also have the same effect. :) It is interesting that I react very badly to the smell of dead flowers - can anyone tell me what chemical is released when flowers decompose?

 

Secondly, I sometimes get what is referred to as "olfactory hallucinations" - i.e. smelling things that aren't there. My doctors and I haven't yet figured out if this is a result of my bipolar disorder or some other brain disorder, or if it is caused by my medication.

[Michaelangelica]

Secondly, I sometimes get what is referred to as "olfactory hallucinations" - . . bipolar disorder . .r brain disorder, or if it is medication.

Can be Bi-polar but you should check it out with a neurologist

Mania & hypomania defined

Olfactory hallucinations

Olfactory hallucinations Smelling things. Can be pleasant or unpleasant. This can be a signal that there is another physical problem and would warrant a through physical examination and review by a specialist physician.

Bipolar Disorder Information Australia - Black Dog Institute

[Chacmool]

Thanks for your concern and for the great information, Michaelangelica. I'll be sure to discuss it with my neurologist. A recent MRI didn't show any abnormalities, but I suppose one can never be too careful.

[moo]

Fascinating, 'cause taste is mainly smell

Aha! :naughty: Good point, that brings up something I had totally forgotten...

 

A friend of mine had fell 3 stories as a young man. He recovered with no apparent disabilities, but completely lost all sense of smell because of the associated head trauma (had a metal plate in his skull). And he preferred really hot and spicy food after that, no doubt trying to make up for the missing aroma.

 

I am sorry for your father.

Thanks. :eek2:

 

Actually we were fortunate compared to many families. Although we did have to put him in a nursing home eventually, he was always glad to see us and seemed to (mostly?) know who we were to the very end.

 

moo

[Michaelangelica]

Aha! :hyper: Good point, that brings up something I had totally forgotten...

 

A friend of mine had fell 3 stories as a young man. He recovered with no apparent disabilities, but completely lost all sense of smell because of the associated head trauma (had a metal plate in his skull). And he preferred really hot and spicy food after that, no doubt trying to make up for the missing aroma.

I have seen two people recover sense of smell. One by putting basil oil (1-2) drops on the back of the tongue each day

Another by clearing his sinus congestion with an oil I make

I have met many people who have lost sense of smell. people (us) don't realise what a loss it is. Firstly all food is "grey" and un-interesting Secondly it can be dangerous- smelling something burning for example. The nose can pick up the slightest smell of burning. I did read the actual amount once but we can pick up the tiniest bit of smoke

 

 

Actually we were fortunate compared to many families.

moo

Alzheimer's is a disease that terrifies me.

About 3 percent of men and women ages 65 to 74 have AD, and nearly half of those age 85 and older may have the disease. It is important to note, however, that AD is not a normal part of aging.

AD affects as many as 4 million Americans; Prevalence of Alzheimer's expected to increase to 11.3-16 million cases in America by 2050 (Alzheimer’s Association, 2004)

19 million people had a family member with Alzheimer's in the US

The prevalence of AD doubles every 5 years beyond age 65.

 

Prevalence and Incidence of Alzheimer's Disease - WrongDiagnosis.com

Statistics by Country for Alzheimer's Disease - WrongDiagnosis.com

I have been looking at painless ways of taking myself out should I start to have it.

So far without a lot of luck. Most plant poisons are terrible and everything else is painful and/or messy. I guess you need complicit doctor

michael

[Michaelangelica]

Collecting smelly stamps??

Gulfnews: Postage stamp gets a dab of perfume

India

 

Published: 11/12/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)

Postage stamp gets a dab of perfume

 

IANS

 

 

New Delhi: The government is bringing out a commemorative postage stamp redolent with the scent of sandalwood.

 

Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran will release the stamp on Wednesday, an official statement said. It will be priced at Rs15. Perfumed stamps have been brought out by New Zealand, Thailand and Switzerland.

 

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