Mmmm..that smells gooood!

Let's take a moment to appreciate our sense of smell.  Think about the smells that we love:  the smell of Thanksgiving morning, freshly brewed coffee, a new book, a new car...doesn't it just make you feel happy?Isn't it also amazing how certain smells can trigger a certain memory?  My sister once had a very bad experience with deli turkey slices, where she had a turkey sandwich when she was sick and ended up throwing up shortly after eating it.  From that point on, even the smell of deli turkey meat will make her grimace and turn away.  As the most primitive sense we use, it does a pretty good job of affecting our moods, behavior, and memories.  Also, if we think about it, we can identify SO many things just by the sniff of our nose!  Foods, drinks, objects, and even people!

Speaking of smelling people, have you ever thought a hot guy or girl smelled awesome?  A college professor

mm sweaty t-shirt!

of mine once mentioned a very interesting experiment that involved a group of college ladies sniffing a bunch of guys' t-shirts also known as the "sweaty t-shirt study."  Claus Wedekind et. al. were trying to find a relationship between olfactory mechanisms and sexual selection.  Well, these researchers had a bunch of guys wear a plain white T-shirt for a day, and hung up these shirts in a room.  Then, they had a bunch of women come into the room and smell each shirt while rating which wearer she thought was more attractive.

i <3 my opposite

And the results???  It turns out that these women preferred guys that had dissimilar DNA to their own.  And why would this be important??  The DNA that the researchers examined were of the MHC (major histocompatability complex) which are cell surface molecules that mediate the interaction between our immune cells and help to recognize invaders.  And the more diverse the MHC genes of the parents are, the stronger the immune system of the offspring because the immune cells will be able to recognize a greater range of bacteria, viruses, etc.

Sooo ladies, our sense of smell can potentially affect our mate choice!  So go smell your boyfriend and if you don't like his "scent" maybe he's not the right choice for you!

As a Living Environment student teacher, I think that this experiment would be a great motivation piece for a lesson on body systems, immunity, or sexual selection.