Word: odors
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Smell is the most mysterious of human senses. Odor engineers need not only chemistry and physics but must also know something about history, psychology and sociology. This is the conclusion of a new book, Odors: Physiology and Control
...pleasantness or unpleasantness of an odor is mostly a matter of psychological conditioning. McCord and Witheridge point out that workers in horribly smelly places (such as glue factories) eat hearty meals while surrounded by putrefying carrion, but visitors in such surroundings get sick at the thought of eating anything. People whose minds are fully occupied are often unconscious of odors. "It may be doubted," observe McCord and Witheridge, "that the handful of men and women on Noah's Ark, with their own existence threatened, complained of animal odors about the place." But less preoccupied people than the Noah family...
Resin & Rotten Eggs. Fashions in odor change with the times. In the 17th Century, say the authors, the best-loved perfumes were spices, resins and incense-like aromatics. They suspect that a lovely court lady, deliciously spiced for her time, might be rushed to the nearest exit by moderns. They also suggest that expensive modern perfumes (containing synthetics and animal sex lures) might have caused a similar reaction at the court of Louis...
...feel and smell of spring were as definite as the fine odor of hot tar of highway repair jobs; in many areas the sky was bright blue and white clouds sat motionless as mashed potatoes on the horizon. Early bugs died on windshields on Connecticut's Merritt Parkway. Sunbathers gathered in tentative knots along Los Angeles beaches despite ocean fog. Across the Midwest, spring plowing went on day & night; tractors with headlights rumbled across fields after dark like one-eyed monsters. From coast to coast men pulled on high boots and went fishing...
...molecule is important in determining what it smells like. The nose, he thinks, contains "receptors" which are designed to respond to molecules of certain shapes. When one of these comes along, the receptor recognizes it by its shape, and sends a nerve message which the brain interprets as an odor...