Wednesday, March 10, 2010  Gorilla BO and the Human Nose  I
began my scientific life in animal behavior and was already a
post-doctoral fellow when I carried out my first-ever experiment
on human smell ability. Even then, it involved
animals—specifically, the ability of people to detect odor
differences between inbred strains of mice. The mice themselves
could smell a difference and preferred to mate with individuals
of the other strain. Humans, I discovered, can smell this
difference as well, whether the odor source is live mice, mouse
urine, or a tiny test tube full of mouse turds.  This was
certainly an odd study, but one with an important lesson:
namely, we shouldn’t underestimate the human sense of smell.
People can read at least some of the body odor signals that are
such a rich source of information to other species.   In What
the Nose Knows, I relate how Deborah Wells and Peter Hepper
discovered an even more impressive man-smells-dog story. They
had dog owners sniff two identical blankets, of which on