Tuesday, May 10, 2005

"A far higher dose of the armpit chemical than anyone would be exposed to in normal life"

Apparently my BA oral defense is Thursday, not today, which is a good thing because I cannot read my own handwriting and should probably type up my notes. It's not a good thing, though, because I was for whatever reason certain it was today, and now I must funnel this adrenaline (not to mention a more-spiffy-than-usual outfit) into doing my Hebrew homework, which requires concentration but not really adrenaline, and certainly not any outfit in particular.

In other, non-Phoebe news, this gay-men-and-smell story is really something. Mashehu mashehu, as they say in transliterated Hebrew. I love the headline: "For Gay Men, an Attraction to a Different Kind of Scent"--which of course makes you wonder who made the scent--Versace, perhaps? This much the Times does not answer, because the article isn't in the Thursday Styles but rather in Tuesday Health, but since I apparently can't tell the difference between Tuesday and Thursday (see above) you can see why I might be confused.

This, though, is my favorite part of the story:

Dr. Catherine Dulac, a Harvard University biologist who studies pheromones in mice, said that if a chemical modified the function of the hypothalamus, that might be enough to regard it as a pheromone. She said the Swedish study was extremely interesting, even though "humans are a terrible experimental subject." She noted, however, that the researchers used a far higher dose of the armpit chemical than anyone would be exposed to in normal life. (emphasis mine)


Imagine that, "a far higher dose of the armpit chemical than anyone would be exposed to in normal life." I've definitely waited on subway platforms in the summer on which the levels probably reached those used in the study.

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