[Science Report]:Women and Sense of Smell


This is the VOA SpecialEnglish SCIENCE REPORT.

Two new American studies are adding to our understanding of womenand their sense of smell.

Graphic Image
Graphic Image

The first study showed that womenappear to like the smell of men whose genes are similar to thewomen's fathers. Scientists at the University of Chicago in Illinoisdescribed their experiment in Nature Genetics magazine.

The scientists asked a group of forty-nine women to smell severalboxes. Each box had a different smell. The women were asked whichbox they would choose if they had to smell it all the time. Theywere not told what each box contained.

The ten boxes contained pieces of clothing called T-shirts. Someof the T-shirts contained a common smell of a substance found aroundthe house. Each of the other six T-shirts had been worn by a man fortwo days. The six men who wore the T-shirts were told to avoidactivities that produced strong smells.

The scientists tested the genes of the men and women in thestudy. They examined a special group of genes called M-H-C genes.

The scientists found that the women did not choose smells of menwith genes totally similar to their own. However, women generallyliked the smell of men whose M-H-C genes were similar to the genesthat were passed to the women from their fathers. There was no suchrelationship between a woman and genes from her mother.

A second study found that women can improve their ability torecognize smells by smelling them repeatedly. Scientists at theMonell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,organized this study. They reported the findings in NatureNeuroscience magazine.

The scientists found that men and women were equally good atidentifying a number of smells at the start of testing. However, thewomen became better at recognizing smells the more they were tested.This was not true for men, boys, girls or older women. Scientistssuggest that this ability may be linked to substances calledhormones produced by women.

Scientists say their findings may explain why women are morelikely than men to be troubled by smells in the environment.

This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.

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