radically transparent

another hint that smell is the sense of the future: a study showing that men and women are attracted to partners with an opposing/complementary MHC (Major Histocompatibility Complex) which is an immuno-defense that makes us reject foreign organs, for example. it also works for smell: in a study where women were asked to rank sweaty t-shirts in terms of desirability of men, they were found to prefer smells that were of significantly different MHC – an indication that opposites attract? even more strange, women on birth control had flipped and preferred similar smells to their own – meaning you could wake up next to someone who thinks you stink, or not, depending on the pill. hmmm…
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A04E6DB143AF93AA35755C0A96E958260

in this study, an fMRI was used to observe the physiological reactions to two suspected pheromones – human smells – one from women, the other from men. heterosexual men and women reacted completely differently to the two smells: the smell of women activated the hypothalamus in men, but the smell of men activated only the smell -related part of the brain. the smell of men activated the hypothalamus of women, and the smell of women only their smell brain. the study gets interesting when the gay control group is included: gay men respond physiologically the same way as women (to men’s smell), even more strange the data for gay women was too complicated and not yet ready for publication. this means little, except that our bodies respond differently according to sexuality, although we don’t know if it is learned or innate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/science/10smell.html?ex=1139979600&en=573b687a4def2f4a&ei=5070