Status Updates From The Scent of Desire: Discov...

Ch8, the future of smell technology. Dogs smelling whale shit & detecting cancers, wasps & bees locating mines & drugs through pavlovian conditioning, aroma devices integrated into HVAC for businesses, & the potential & gotchas for these electronic noses & aromas in theaters & VR. Feminine scents make girls more likely to buy & vice versa. Aromas must be appropriate (see & smell cookies) to work. End of book

Ch7 pt2, businesses use fake aromas to make you think cookies that haven't just been baked are fresh. Flavor chemicals are potent. We don't know the difference between natural & synthetic/artificial, & there really is none. Artificial sweeteners don't work- younger girls crave more sweets, men more savory. Food cravings are common, more so for dieters.

Ch7, taste receptors, flavor (combination of taste & smell), retronasal olfaction. "Supertasters" experience bitter more & are less likely to be alcoholics. Tons of flavor chemicals all meant to mimic strawberry- only difference between flavors & fragrances is safety tested for ingestion & the other isn't. Taste, unlike scent, is innate. Old ppl can't smell & that leads to bad meal timing & malnutrition.

Ch6, 3 different types of sweat, our diet dictates our odor in some, bacteria feed on some. Moms know how their baby smells, baby knows how mom smells & are comforted by their clothes, like adults & siblings too. Asians smell less, Europeans more, obese more, fragrances can mask & mix & burn. History of perfume, synthetics don’t fade quickly, gender based scents, Chanel No 5 & Acqua di Gio

Ch5 (pt2), closest things we have to pheromones are women syncing menstrual cycles & becoming more fertile arnd other moms & babies, & regulating their cycles arnd men. We got no VNO for detecting pheromones. Getting off BC pills can change the men you’re attracted to scent wise, which is purportedly the most important factor for girls. Good scent bases also signify good health & symmetry- so much shit in this ch

Ch5, all but identical twins have scent profiles based on genes, and we, especially ovulating women, are attracted to the opposites of our own, cos that results in a highly immune & healthy child. This doesnt work for women on BC pills, cause their bodies think theyre preg & want similar genes / protection / family. Divorce rates! Colognes mask this. Floral scents are hot on girls. Humans dont have pheromones (kinda)

Ch4, aromatherapy. It works, but mostly in the way placebo works & is entirely based on our preconceived notions & prior experiences w the scent. Still room to use certain scents for certain tasks, assuming you avoid nose blindness. People assume sulfuric odors to be intoxicating, but a lot of good stuff smells "bad" & bad stuff can smell really pleasant. MCS is baloney & Freud thought a link between the brain & nose

Ch3, scent & memory. While scent isn't really better than other senses at evoking accurate memories, it's been shown that scent-induced memories contain a strong emotional quality not seen w visual or auditory cues. This is especially devastating for PTSD patients, but can be leveraged using certain scents for subjects when studying or storytelling. It's hard to remember odors & noseblindness/odor adaptation is real

Ch2, generalists like humans & rats are born with a blank slate & start liking or disliking scents based on what their mother consumes while they're in the womb, when they're being breastfed, or based on the situation they first encounter / hear of the scent. Specialists, like skunks' predators, are hardwired. There's no unanimously disliked scent, & trigeminals are why menthol feels cool & ammonia feels burning.

Intro & ch1, olfaction & emotion are directly intertwined. People who lose their sense of smell become depressed & vice versa. Smell's the most primordial sense, helping us & the most basic organisms discern good from bad, although we've traded receptors for more advanced vision. Shape theory's the most accepted for how smell works. You can smell human, especially male, fear. Can't discern fake & real fragrances