Life in the Fast Lane

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It’s all in the sense of smell — or is it? Only recently has there been any sense of importance placed upon research and study for this lower form of the 5 senses. The Institute of Olfactory Research at Warwick University developed the first prototype ‘electronic nose’ in the mid-80s, and high-tech companies are now selling commercial versions of the ‘Warwick Nose’. Photo Hippobosca

The potential uses of nose-machines, which essentially mimic the functions of human noses but with more precision, are endless. Perfume makers are using them to protect their patented scents against imitators. US dockside inspectors have used a high-tech snout to resolve disputes with fishermen to grade their catch.

SIRC reports Warwick University scientists are researching the use of electronic noses to diagnose illness by smelling patients’, and have recently been awarded an EU grant to investigate the possibility of installing electronic noses in phone receivers, so that patients can simply breathe into the phone and wait for a diagnosis. They would also detect changes in body odor that could indicate disease conditions.

A similar mechanism could soon permit Internet users to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ quite literally.

Companies such as Aromascan PLC are now competing for a slice of the lucrative high-tech sniffer market.

Research is also working with a process to use breath analysis to identify stages of the female menstrual cycle. The ability of electronic noses would detect ovulation to benefit fertility treatment and birth control.

Possibilities will also include the use of our own personal scent as a form of identification, assisting to eliminate identity fraud. The Association for Payment Clearing Services is exploring the use of electronic noses in banks, and companies may soon be able to replace security entry systems with a device that recognizes an employee’s personal odor — something which could not be replicated by another.

Currently, the electronic noses available aren’t any more sensitive than that of the human nose, but they still have significant advantages, with advancements currently under way. Electronic noses don’t become de-sensitized with repetitive smells. Unpleasant scents like industrial chemicals and sewage don’t make electronic sniffers feel sick, and their performance on smelling tasks won’t fluctuate due to human factors.

Predictions that future high-tech noses may be developed which have properties that will mimic human emotions — a definite benefit for perfume-makers to test the effects of their products.

The development of more sophisticated technology for synthesizing or ‘capturing’ previously elusive smells are taking place with the advances in high-tech noses.

‘Headspace’ technology can now accurately analyze and synthetically reproduce almost any smell. One new fragrance for men claims to have both the distinguishing odor of a famous New York tobacconist shop and ‘essence of racing car’. Another manufacturer declares to have reproduced the scent of financial newspapers — a big hit on Wall Street no doubt.

A process known as ‘soft extraction’, which has been in use for the food industry, is the latest vogue among perfume manufacturers. By passing a unique form of carbon dioxide through objects such as a coffee bean, food technologists have been able to extract coffee flavoring. Photos top to bottom — Fotrrist DMC2006 Chjazz2 Alymay Wu Da_Goaliegurl

The complexities of personal odor are the subject of sophisticated classification systems in many other cultures. The average member of the Amazonian Desana community provide details that an individual’s unique odor — oma seriri — is a combination of natural personal odor, odors acquired through the food one eats, odors caused by emotions and periodic odors related to fertility. Not only is their evaluation scientifically accurate, but the Desana are able to describe each of the smells involved in minute and vivid detail.

In other parts of the Amazonian area, thousands of Avon ladies are actually selling deodorants and perfumes hut-to-hut. In remote villages only accessible by canoe, the products are frequently exchanged for local produce — two dozen eggs buys you a Bart Simpson roll-on deodorant, and for 20 pounds of flour, you can buy a bottle of ‘Charisma’ perfume.

Smell isn’t merely a biological and psychological experience — it’s also a social and cultural phenomenon.

It’s probably the most undervalued of the senses in modern Western cultures. The low status of smell in Western culture is reflected in our language — everyday terms for ‘nose’, are almost all derogatory, and even disrespectful (schnozzle, hooter, snout, etc.) — and large or distinctive noses are considered ugly.

All other senses have positive, gracious associations in common language. We speak of a person as ‘visionary’, ‘keen-eyed’, ‘having a good ear’, ‘a good listener’. We praise ‘dexterity’, ‘a light touch’ and ‘good taste’, etc. The only common expression which implies olfactory ability is ‘nosy’ — a term of abuse rather than praise.

The verb ‘to smell’, when used descriptively, has a negative meaning unless followed by a positive adjective. If we simply state that something or someone ‘smells’, we mean that they smell bad. To give praise, we have to specify that they ‘smell good’ or ‘smell nice’. Smells are guilty until proven innocent.

The current aromatherapy, once regarded as hippie new-age gibberish, aromatherapy is now regarded ‘mainstream’. Scientists insist that there’s still no proof of the benefits of aromatherapy, but the fragrances are undeniably pleasant, which may be enough incentive for people in general. The findings of research on olfaction, previously reported only in obscure academic journals, are now appearing regularly in popular newspapers and magazines.

In many non-Western cultures, smell has long been established as the ruler of the senses. For the Ongee of the Andaman Islands, the universe and everything in it is defined by smell. Their calendar is constructed on the basis of the odors of flowers that come into bloom at different times of the year. Each season is named after a particular odor, and possesses its own distinctive ‘aroma-force’. Personal identity is also defined by smell — to refer to oneself, one touches the tip of one’s nose, a gesture meaning both ‘me’ and ‘my odor’.

When greeting someone, the Ongee don’t ask ‘How are you?’, but ‘Konyune onorange-tanka?’ meaning ‘How is your nose?’. Etiquette requires that if the person responds that he or she feels ‘heavy with odor’, the greeter must inhale deeply to remove some of the excess. If the greeted person feels a bit short of odor-energy, it’s considered polite to provide some extra scent by blowing on them.

The Bororo of Brazil and the Serer Ndut of Senegal also associate personal identity with smell. For the Bororo, body odor is associated with the life-force of a person, and breath-odor with the soul. The Ndut believe that each individual is animated by two different scent-defined forces. One is physical, associated with body and breath odor; the other, spiritual, scent is claimed to survive the death of an individual to be reincarnated in a descendant. The Ndut can tell which ancestor has been reincarnated in a child by recognizing the similarity of the child’s scent to that of the deceased person.

In India, the traditional affectionate greeting — equivalent of the Western hug or kiss — was to smell someone’s head. An ancient Indian text declares “I will smell thee on the head, that is the greatest sign of tender love”.

Similar practices are found in Arab countries, where breathing on people as you speak to them signals friendship and goodwill — and to ‘deny’ someone your breath-smell conveys a shameful avoidance of involvement.

Among the Amazonian Desana, all members of a tribal group are believed to share a similar odor. Marriage is only allowed between persons of different odors, so a spouse must be chosen from other tribal groups.

The Batek Negrito of the Malay Peninsula take the same taboo on the odor-mixing of close relatives even further. Not only is sexual intercourse between those of similar odor prohibited, even sitting too close to one another for too long is considered dangerous. Any prolonged mixing of similar personal odors is believed to cause disease in the people involved and in any children they may conceive.

The dangers of odor-mixing are even more extreme for another Malay Peninsula people, the Temiar. The Temiar believe that an individual has an odor-soul located in the lower back. If you pass too closely behind a person, the odor-soul is disturbed and mingles with your body, causing disease. Prevention is to call out ‘odor, odor’ whenever you approach a person from behind, so that the odor-soul is forewarned of the imposition.

The Dogon people of Mali believe odor and sound are essentially related, as both travel on air. Speech itself is believed to be scented — good speech smells pleasant. In Dogon terms, this means an odor of oil and cooking, which are highly valued, while nasal, imprecise or inaccurate speech has an unpleasant, stagnant odor. Small children who consistently make mistakes of grammar or pronunciation will have their noses pierced as a curative.

Cattle raisers in Dassanetch Ethiopia feel that no scent is more beautiful than the odor of cows. The social status and fertility is such that the men wash their hands in cattle urine and smear their bodies with manure, while the women rub butter into their heads, shoulders and breasts to make themselves smell more attractive.

For the Dogon, the scent of onion is by far the most attractive fragrance a young man or woman can wear. They rub fried onions all over their bodies as a highly desirable perfume.

In Arab countries, women use a wide range of scents to perfume different parts of their bodies. Musk, rose and saffron are rubbed over the entire body. Hair is then perfumed with a blend of walnut or sesame oil and ambergris or jasmine. The ears are scented with mkhammariyah, a blend of aloewood, saffron, rose, musk and civet. Ambergris and narcissus scents are used on the neck, sandalwood in the armpits and aloewood on the nostrils. Perfumes are only used in private situations, when a woman is in the company of other women, or her husband and close family. To wear perfume in public or in the company of men is considered whorish.

Arab men also wear perfumes — rose and aloewood behind their ears, on their nostrils, in their beards and in the palms of their hands.

A person whose perfumes smell particularly pleasant would be asked ‘who have you been visiting?’ This is because a perfuming ritual marks the end of every social meal. After the meal has finished and coffee served, the host or hostess (men and women eat separately) will bring out the perfume box. For women, this contains four to eight bottles of perfume and an incense burner. The bottles are passed around and each guest anoints herself with the different scents on different parts of her body or clothing, using a glass applicator. The incense burner is passed around, allowing each guest to perfume herself with the fragrant fumes.

The appearance of the perfume-box concludes the end of the visit, and the guests leave as soon as the perfume ritual is completed. Guests arrive wearing their best perfumes to honor the hostess, and leave honored in return by the hostess, whose social prestige is enhanced by the pleasant smells she imparts to her guests. The ritual also promotes a feeling of bonding and unity, in that guests arrive differently-scented, but by the end of the visit are bound together by a shared fragrance.

Among the Colombian Desana, a shaman must blow strong-smelling tobacco smoke over a girl on the occasion of her first menstruation, to initiate her as an acceptable member of the civilized, adult community.

At weddings in Northern Sudan, both the bride and the other women attending the ceremony are ritually perfumed with fragrant incense containing a blend of ‘cold’, masculine, scents and ‘hot’, feminine aromas, to symbolize marital unity and promote fertility.

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Tags:bizarre breath analysis electronic noses nose nose machines odd scent science sense smell smells sniffers weird

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