smell

Researchers redefine the lost art of smelling illness using one woman’s exquisitely sensitive nose.

The odor prompted the animals’ fat cells to release lipids into circulation.

People with more carboxylic acids in their body odor are more attractive to mosquitoes, a study finds.

The findings likely have implications for animal research far beyond the study of antidepressants.

Neurons in mosquito antennae can express more than one olfactory receptor at a time, a redundancy that likely ensures they don’t lose a potential host’s scent.

Flavivirus infections alter the skin microbiome of mice to increase the production of a sweet-smelling compound that attracts the viruses’ insect vectors, a study finds.

Pairs of same-sex friends who reported strong connections when they first met had similar body odors, and body odor similarity predicted whether two strangers would hit it off.

A brain area of Aedes aegypti responds specifically to components of human sebum, a study finds.

Once considered anosmic, birds are now widely recognized as using olfactory cues to aid in a wide range of behaviors.

A study finds that the odorless compound hexadecanal, or HEX, increases aggressive behavior in women but has a calming effect on men.

The temporary loss of olfaction stops the flies from eating any more of whatever it is that made them sick.

Good girl, Florin!

In a proof-of-concept study, researchers used dogs’ diagnoses of prostate cancer to inform a machine learning algorithm with the goal of one day detecting cancers with canine-level accuracy.

Decoding Smell: Demystifying Human Disease and Behavior

Using optogenetics, scientists have simulated the sense of smell directly within the mouse brain to investigate the nature of olfactory perception.

Data from a crowdsourcing smartphone app is helping to track the spread of the disease in real time and reveals the symptom as the number one indicator of infection.

In a virtual reality experiment, participants recovered faster from a small electric shock when they could smell natural scents than when they could smell urban odors.

A study identifies five women who have a functioning sense of smell despite an apparent lack of olfactory bulbs—the region of the brain that processes odors.

The brain wiring behind scent processing seems to scale across mammalian species.