For centuries, many cultures have used scents and odors for a variety of purposes. From the earliest civilizitions, humans have created and used scents to mask unpleasant odors and to enhance other, more appealing ones. To find out what makes humans so responsive to natural and synthesized fragrances, series host and naturalist Diane Ackerman investigates the role of incense in Oman, visits a perfume factory in New Jersey, traces a smell from outside the body to the part of the brain that stores memories and emotions, and examines how different animals use their sense of smell.
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00:00Mystery of the Senses
00:03A NOVA miniseries with Diane Ackerman
00:30Tonight, the sense of smell
00:34We're about to embark on a journey through the world of smell
00:54And we're going to start at the Statue of Liberty of all places
00:58Where a real smell celebration is in full swing
01:02The fireworks are for champagne
01:12A new Yves Saint Laurent perfume
01:15This is champagne's gala coming out party
01:19The perfume, not the drink
01:22It's amazing how much sensing happens at a snazzy shindig in the dark
01:31There's lots of conversations to hear
01:34And sights to see
01:37And there's plenty of tasting
01:46To work off
01:49There's touch
02:02This is a fabulous party
02:11And all for the sake of a smell
02:14We've come so far as a species
02:30Yet we shy away from our natural odors
02:36Instead, we pamper ourselves with created fragrances
02:40To lure the heart of someone special
02:43Will Saint Laurent's perfume succeed?
02:53Who knows?
02:54If women like it
02:56Or believe men are attracted by the scent
02:59Maybe
03:00Of course, this is all a far cry from the natural history of smell
03:08That story begins deep in the oceans of geologic time
03:16Before there were animals on land
03:24Life thrived in the seas
03:25We still carry the primordial ocean within us
03:30Our blood is mainly salt water
03:32So are our tears
03:34But today, down here, we are aliens
03:38This watery medium is filled with chemical messages
03:43A primitive form of smell
03:45Can sea creatures smell?
03:50I can barely talk underwater
03:52And I have no sense of smell in this strange world
03:55Most sea creatures have a detailed sense of smell
04:02Sharks can scent food miles away
04:05And follow an odor trail until they spot their prey
04:09To these fish, our bodies are just leaky bags of chemicals
04:17That's how this lobster knows I'm after it
04:21A combination of taste and smell detectors
04:24Scents my body's chemical odors seeping into the water
04:27Once we left the ocean
04:48A brand new chemical scent became possible
04:51The one we humans call smell
04:53Now that I'm up here in the air
04:56I can smell all sorts of things
04:57The ocean itself
04:59Which is a curious combination of salty and organic
05:03A little bit of gasoline from the motor
05:06And even a fragrance of neoprene from the suit
05:10Now, my lobster friend smells underwater with his antennae
05:18So up in the air, he can't smell the kinds of molecules that I can
05:23But I suppose he has his own favorite smells just as we do
05:30The tantalizing aroma of fresh baked bread and other aromatic treats
05:35Send us running for the table
05:37While a rose's velvety sweet smell can spark a thousand private memories
05:46That we are surrounded by a parade of smells is not extraordinary
05:51What's amazing is that we can identify and remember so many
05:56Every odor molecule we inhale has a unique size and shape
06:03This is a fishy smell
06:06Here is camphor
06:08The brain identifies a specific smell by the shape of the captured molecule
06:14With every breath, odor molecules travel up the nose
06:20They quickly reach a sheet of moist mucus-bathed tissue
06:32Where they plug into receptors located at the ends of stringy structures called cilia
06:37The cilia are outgrowths of neurons
06:44Millions of sensing cells
06:46That collect and transmit smell information to the brain's olfactory bulb
06:50And with five million sensing cells at our disposal
06:59We humans can distinguish thousands of odors
07:02But the real smell champ is the cockroach
07:07Tom Eisner is about to place the odor of a female cockroach in this glass beaker
07:13And here comes the sexual presentation
07:17Now you can see how they're all activated
07:24And you also can see that in addition to being activated
07:27They're converging on the source
07:28They're converging on the rod
07:31They're inspecting it with the palps and the antennae
07:34And as soon as they've identified it as female
07:36They rotate around
07:37And as you can see
07:38They're actually attempting to copulate with the rod
07:42We humans can't detect the scent
07:46Yet male cockroaches can smell the female's odor
07:49Even though its donor has been dead for 20 years
07:52Smell for many creatures is really a super sense
07:56They use it as intensively and as accurately as we use our vision and hearing
08:01We're a diurnal species
08:04We do things in the daytime
08:05We use our eyes
08:06We can also generate sound with this
08:09So we communicate by sound
08:12We communicate by eye contact
08:14And we're so acoustical and visual in our conventions
08:19That our biases are acoustical and visual
08:22And we tend to be oblivious to the fact that chemical communication
08:26Is taking place all around us
08:29By every type of organism literally that inhabits this earth
08:32Different organisms are attuned to different chemical signals
08:42Each in its own way highly sensitive to the particular signals
08:45That mean something to that organism
08:47In finding food
08:51They may be sharply attuned to certain odorants from food
08:59In finding the opposite sex
09:01They may be specially attuned to substances produced by that opposite sex
09:05Different organisms use different molecules
09:08So there is no ambiguity in this tremendous noise of signals that we're surrounded with
09:13Miami Airport
09:26A dizzying swirl of activity and smells
09:31Some artificial
09:33Some natural
09:34But not all of them legal
09:36These are drug sniffing dogs
09:45Laying their noses on the line in the fight against crime
09:48With 200 million smelling cells at their disposal
09:56That's 40 times what we can boast
09:58They're one-dog armies
10:00True crime busters
10:02Miami Airport is a well-known drug smuggling center
10:11But finding concealed drugs would be next to impossible
10:14Without the help of these masterful sleuths
10:17Deputy agent Bouncer is a veteran smellhound
10:26He's checking this plane to see if drugs have been stashed in seats or panels
10:33Wait, Bouncer has found something
10:40His assistant will radio for help
10:49The target area needs to be dismantled
10:52The target area needs to be dismantled
10:59Drugs were here all right, but now they're gone
11:04Perhaps they'll have more luck in their luggage area
11:11Here canine agents must sniff through dirty socks and underwear
11:19Cologne and toothpaste
11:21Ancient leather and space-age plastic to find the illicit smells
11:25Dogs, they don't smell the same way that we do
11:32They have what you might call a sight picture of an odor
11:37Whereas you might smell a pizza
11:41A dog, in his mind, sees every item on that pizza
11:48You know, if there's 20 ingredients on the pizza that make up the pizza
11:54He knows each individual item
11:57The dog, if you were to put marijuana on the pizza
12:00He'll be able to pick out the marijuana from the pizza
12:03He's looking for one specific odor
12:05Evening turns to night and still no fines reported
12:09But tons of cargo are left to sniff
12:12Sometimes big shipments are uncovered in the warehouse
12:18A dog, like mine here, can go ahead and clear a warehouse
12:23In about 10 hours' time
12:27Do the same warehouse
12:29With the personnel, we'd need probably 20 personnel
12:32And take a full eight hours to be able to do a warehouse completely
12:36This is a big advantage to using dogs
12:39Today, after long hours on patrol, agents will find nothing
12:46But their past success keeps them on the alert
12:49But actually, the most marijuana he's ever gotten
12:51Was like 6,800 pounds out of Bogota, Colombia, in fact
12:54So we never know where we're going to find it
12:56But he thinks it's always there, so we keep looking
12:59They'll be on the job again bright and early tomorrow
13:09Success in the world of fashionable smells is even rarer
13:19But Sophia Grossman has created more top-selling perfumes than just about anyone
13:28Her latest triumph, champagne, is the celebrity at the sparkling party
13:34Sophia is called a nose, which means an elite perfumer
13:39She has a gift for mixing scents and an extraordinary memory of smells
13:44A combination that has brought her to the top of her profession
13:48Sophia works her magic at the International Flavors and Fragrances Organization
13:56Companies that need a designer smell will often come here looking for just that right spark
14:03Some of Sophia's creations
14:07Eternity, Tresor, White Diamonds
14:10Have names that are relaxed and elegant
14:13But the work is long and hard
14:16An intuitive blend of art and science
14:18Now let's compound that and see what it looks like
14:21Okay
14:21Okay, I'm going to now take the formula and give to Cornelia
14:24To make Cornelia, let's make that formula
14:26We need at least 154.7 grams
14:32I think
14:33It's inspiration and perspiration that makes you a good perfumer
14:40And I think you have to experiment and experience things
14:46You have to be aware of all people and smells around you
14:51And a lot of this comes from childhood
14:55Childhood memories
14:56When I was a little girl
14:59I was actually surrounded with all grown-ups after the war
15:02And my toys were the flowers, the field flowers
15:07That were growing in Belarus where I was living at the time
15:11And I was always fascinated with the flowers
15:13So I used to take them apart and suck the honey
15:17And smell them and collect them and do all sorts of things with the flowers
15:21And many times I returned to that and tried to kind of reproduce the effect
15:28That floral effect that I remember loving it as a child
15:32In the fragrances also
15:36The last experiment is much better
15:38It's working
15:39But what we need to do is to make another fresher top note
15:44A perfumer is like an alchemist
15:47Producing new scents by combining liquefied forms of artificial and natural odors
15:53Fine perfumes contain hundreds of smells
15:57They will include the bewitching aromas of flowers and fruits
16:01And heavier base scents like sandalwood and musk
16:04Mixed together these molecules somehow form lovely bouquets
16:20This model and this nose belong to George Dodd
16:24He is a chemist exploring the horizons of smell research
16:28Now if we look upon perfume now not as an art form but as a scientist
16:33And using our scent to smell which is exquisitely sensitive
16:37In fact much more sensitive than people will you have you believe
16:41We can analyse all perfumes in the world like this
16:43And we find they consist of three different types of molecules
16:47There's an army of molecules tumbling out of this bottle
16:50And the first wave of the army are quite small molecules
16:53Citrusy very volatile molecules easily get into the air
16:58And they're the top notes
16:59They're followed by less volatile materials
17:02Typical floral notes like jasmine and rose
17:06But the real heart of the perfume
17:08The real biological work, the biological message
17:11Is coming through much bigger molecules
17:14The base notes
17:15They're very unvolatile
17:18And in fact they really have to be on our skin for quite some time
17:21Before they warm up
17:22Before we can really smell them
17:24And hence we can understand the logic of the perfume
17:27Consisting of the top notes and the middle notes and the base notes
17:30Because the top notes being volatile
17:33Help drag along the middle notes and help drag along the base notes
17:36Otherwise if we made a perfume only from the base notes
17:39We'd have to hang around for a few minutes before we could get a decent smell sensation
17:44And that really is the kind of molecular logic
17:47Behind every kind of perfume
17:51Scientists can distinguish most of the molecules that make up smells
17:57The mystery is why we prefer some smells to others
18:00Is there any reason to believe that men would like a certain type of perfume smell
18:07Which women wouldn't and vice versa
18:09And there we begin to gradually move from the area of science
18:13Into the area of mystique and culture-laden ideas
18:18Because in fact when people are allowed to choose smells
18:21About them being labelled for them
18:23We often find that women adore classic woody smells
18:26Which are supposed to be characteristic of men's fragrances
18:29And conversely men will like very light floral smells
18:33Which are typically labelled as feminine
18:35They are culturally bound ideas
18:37Which are the reflection of our perceptions of what is appropriate in our society
18:48Sophia Grossman lives in two worlds
18:50The smell landscape that surrounds all of us
18:54And the new kingdom which she helps to create
18:56She has just been asked to develop a male fragrance
19:00Something she's never done before
19:03She specializes in dreaming up fragrances that make women more alluring
19:08Not men
19:09And the artistic challenge will be demanding
19:12Well
19:14Making a man's fragrance is rather difficult for me
19:17Because I am specializing in very feminine accords
19:22Floral, sensual accords
19:25And in order to make successful men's fragrance
19:29It's got to be very powerful
19:31With all basically masculine accords
19:35Which is a little bit difficult and against my nature
19:41Although I like a wonderful fragrance in a man
19:45And some of them are very sexy and special
19:47And you know, I will tune into that
19:49But on the other hand
19:51It is difficult because
19:53Difficult for me to kind of transform myself into another area
19:57Where I never tried to do anything yet
20:05Sophia and her assistant start testing combinations
20:09They know their client will be highly critical
20:12There's a colossal amount of money and prestige at stake
20:16They begin their creation one drop at a time
20:24In another part of IFF, drops run to gallons
20:27As already approved fragrances head for the mass market
20:31And that market is vast
20:34Far larger than perfume alone
20:39This factory panders to our paranoia about smells
20:45Here they manufacture pine and lemon scents
20:48Flower and citrus
20:50Pleasant outdoor smells transformed into liquid chemicals
20:54For household cleaners, soaps and air fresheners
20:57We perfume everything that touches our lives
21:07We perfume everything that touches our lives
21:08I can't help but to watch the ends go, you could do this for Emma.
21:15You didn't watch the washing, Nancy, with a woman in her hand.
21:19That's very good.
21:27I can't help but to watch the ends go.
21:29You could do this for Emma.
21:31You didn't wash them in this morning, I know.
21:33I can't help but to take the back.
21:35She doesn't wash.
21:37I guarantee that she has water.
21:39That's it.
21:41Go for it.
21:52Hours of research go into deciding how to make a product smell like it's doing its job.
21:58In a world where competing products all do the same thing,
22:01the right smell can mean millions in sales and profits.
22:18What's up?
22:19Harold, what I'm trying to do here is get away from the traditional pine and citrus
22:23and go to a more spicy floral potpourri connotation.
22:27What do you think of that?
22:28That wasn't bad.
22:29Not bad.
22:30However, the spicy note, I think, was slightly overdone.
22:33If you can just cut back a little bit on that, I think that would be much better.
22:37Okay.
22:38I mean, I think just adding a little freshness of work,
22:41I just hope it doesn't have too much of a food-like connotation.
22:44It's a nice green note I like.
22:49It's a good body.
22:51A little heavy, though.
22:53I think this one, to me, is a little bit too sophisticated.
23:03Maybe if you can...
23:05It's a bit heavy in the floor.
23:07Right.
23:08I freshen it up a little bit with some fruitiness.
23:10Sure.
23:11Lighter.
23:12Make lighter.
23:13For the younger age group, it would be perfect.
23:16But it has nice strength.
23:17A bit too sophisticated.
23:18Mm-hmm.
23:19Mm-hmm.
23:24See what I mean?
23:25I think the pine is a little bit too harsh.
23:27I think it's a little bit strong.
23:29So I was thinking that if you can sort of cut down on the pine,
23:33it would be a lot better that way.
23:35Well, if I cut down on the pine, I'm going to lose the strength.
23:39So what I'll try and do, I'll try and cover it up with some sort of floralsy.
23:43Okay.
23:44Or maybe a fruity note, like...
23:45I think the fruitiness, though, if it starts getting a little bit too sweet,
23:49you might lose that concept of cleanliness.
23:51Okay.
23:52So I would prefer not to go in the fruity direction.
23:55Okay.
23:56How about a citrus fruity?
23:57That might not be a bad idea, yeah.
23:59Okay.
24:00But let's try and floralsy first, and then maybe a little bit of the citrus note.
24:02Okay, good.
24:03Okay.
24:04Oman One
24:09Creating pleasant scents for profit far outdates the chemistry of modern smellmaking.
24:14That quest has been continuing for millennia.
24:17And in many ways, it began in the Middle East.
24:21In Oman, the sense of smell still reigns supreme, and this shop supplies all the fragrant essentials
24:38of such a society.
24:45Bin Asker is a purveyor of smells.
24:48Among his boxes and bowls, he's like a medieval apothecary, with a potion for all occasions.
25:05This is dried risen of a tree we call dragon's blood.
25:09It grows on an island off the coast.
25:13If you grind it up and put it on a bad skin, it will make it smooth.
25:21This is khalinger.
25:23We use it in our incense mixture.
25:26You break it up and mix it with musk and ambergris.
25:33These nuts and woods, barks and resins, dried flowers and leaves are often mixed together
25:39and burned in Omani homes.
25:54They also burn this substance, prized in biblical times.
25:58It is still a rare and special gift in the Middle East.
26:04These translucent amber droplets once bespoke the wealth of nations and commanded huge prices.
26:12Mighty kingdoms grew and prospered along its sprawling trade routes.
26:24It's a gum resin whose name is as beautiful as it is aromatic.
26:38This is frankincense.
26:40Twice a year, in the spring and the autumn, Musalim comes with his camel to harvest frankincense.
27:00Who would think these twisted trees and tortured bushes contain two of the world's legendary
27:14aromas?
27:16Frankincense and myrrh.
27:20Frankincense and myrrh.
27:32Musalim is one of the last collectors.
27:36Long ago, those who mined the trees for their sappy gold grew rich.
27:41Now world demand has fallen drastically and Musalim barely makes a living.
27:49Autumn is the best time to tap the trees, but they can literally be bled to death.
28:00Musalim's art is to know just how much to extract without killing them.
28:10He has cut the bark down to the resin ducts, which exude the tree's milky tears.
28:15The fragrance comes from a volatile oil sealed in the resin.
28:21White frankincense is the finest.
28:25I remember the days when us collectors used to go up to the desert highlands to harvest
28:31the frankincense.
28:33The best trees grow up there.
28:36We know there are caves and we camped in them for the whole season while we did the cutting.
28:44The merchants used to send our food up to us so we could keep on working.
28:52And the camels brought it.
28:54They went round all the camps exchanging food for the frankincense.
29:00That was how the work was done, always the same thing, year after year.
29:07Longely harvesters like Musalim once formed the backbone of a mighty incense industry.
29:35Today, just a few tons are gathered, but long before the time of Christ, the industry
29:48was already producing 3,000 tons a year.
30:03The criminals hauled the precious cargo along ancient desert routes.
30:20Towns controlling the trade became kingdoms.
30:26And the caravans fed them all.
30:49The Egyptians thought the droplets of frankincense might be the sweat of their gods fallen to
30:56earth.
30:57In their burial ritual, safe passage of the soul to the afterlife depended on one's mummified
31:03body being steeped in enough fragrance.
31:07Frankincense could also protect the living from evil, from disease, and from malevolent spirits
31:14of the night.
31:19With such heavenly backing, the frankincense trade prospered for centuries.
31:42The Arabian Sea lapsed the southern coast of Oman.
31:49Little ports like Marbet and Sudha are quiet now, with only occasional reminders of their glory.
31:58From here, ships bore frankincense eastward as far as India.
32:09This is the house of the merchant Salim Amir.
32:16He's still an important man, known for fair dealing with the frankincense cutters.
32:23Their greeting looks like rubbing noses, but they're actually sniffing.
32:27A good smell means spiritual health.
32:32Breathing it in demonstrates trust.
32:40Salim Amir needs to know exactly where Musalim gathered the frankincense.
32:45The quality varies with the height of the trees.
32:50Careful sniffing confirms it came from one of the best places.
32:56The price is agreed upon.
32:58It will be high since the quality is good, and they'll divide the profits 50-50.
33:04A handshake and a sniff seals the deal.
33:11The role of incense in religious life is as ancient as the faiths that still dominate our world.
33:17Western churches have long burned frankincense.
33:21God, it was said, gave it to Adam with gold and myrrh to comfort his exile from Eden.
33:27But why should a scent have such spiritual power?
33:31And what was so special about frankincense?
33:34Wouldn't any woody smoke do?
33:41Perhaps the lingering sweetness of incense was needed to conceal the stench of burnt offerings,
33:48or the body odor of the gathered faithful.
33:51But was there something else that made its sweet hypnotic smell so attractive?
33:57And what was so special about it?
33:58And what was so special about it?
33:59And what was so special about it?
34:00Incent is one of the most emotive words we have when it comes to smells.
34:07Incense evokes wonderful feelings of religiosity, spirituality.
34:12It makes us feel at ease.
34:14It taps into memories.
34:16And here we have to be ever mindful of the fact that our sense of smell is programmed deeply into our memories.
34:22In fact, there's very good scientific evidence now.
34:26We really never forget many smells we are exposed to without even being aware of the exposure.
34:36In fact, there are specific areas in the brain where smell memories are received and stored.
34:47Smells can spark emotional reactions too.
34:52The root for smell information goes from the olfactory bulb to centers in the brain related to emotion.
34:58Here we find responses like aggression, fear, and sexual arousal that smells can sometimes trigger.
35:14Scientists like George Dodd are exploring that mysterious link between smell and human behavior.
35:20Especially sexual behavior.
35:24Indeed, when you think of erotic interactions between humans,
35:28it very rarely occurs to us to think of our sense of smell being involved.
35:33But in fact, when you are intimate with somebody, you literally have stepped into their atmosphere.
35:39Subtly, of course, it's your unconscious mind that's actually working.
35:43And it behoves us for a moment just to remember that literally our life starts with a breath.
35:49We leap out into this world.
35:51We take a breath.
35:52We suck in smells from around us.
35:53We are cuddled into our mother.
35:55And literally the first smells we encounter in life are human musky molecules on our mother.
36:01And the baby mother attachment starts right at that point.
36:06And you could almost say, in a Freudian sense, our erotic potential for smells had already started right there.
36:13So now we come to the whole question of musk.
36:16The male musk deer secretes a strong, earthy scent that attracts females during mating season.
36:25Naturalists have long observed musk's role as a sexual attractant for deer and other animals.
36:32And we humans do have musky-smelling molecules on our own skin.
36:37Early perfumers discovered that deer musk seemed to invigorate their fragrances,
36:43as if borrowing the deer's sexual appeal somehow improved our own.
36:48When we look at the history of perfumery, we see that our ancestors in caves thousands of years ago
36:54took the component of animal musks, added them to flower oils and created perfumes.
37:00And every successful perfume on the international market has these animal notes as it's taught.
37:06So what's going on? Is it just the power of persuasive advertising?
37:21Or do certain ingredients, such as musk, trick us into feeling sexy because we believe they're sexy?
37:28Or do they really cast a magical spell over us?
37:31The trendy women of Manhattan are wearing perfumes with amazing names.
37:36Opium, obsession, poison, vendetta.
37:40There's even one called pheromone.
37:43It sells for about $300 an ounce, which is rather expensive.
37:50But what price aphrodisia?
37:54Musks, pheromones, aphrodisiacs, all of these are chemical messengers that arouse erotic feelings.
38:04Remember our cockroaches?
38:06Their sexual behavior was driven by pheromones in the female's scent.
38:11Pheromones are smell molecules found on the skin, in urine, in sweat, and in sexual secretions.
38:19Humans also produce them, but their proven effect on our behavior remains controversial.
38:26Now when it comes to the question of human odorants and pheromones, we've some very clear technical questions now.
38:32The technology of chemistry allows us to measure perhaps 50 different types of molecules in our skin.
38:37Soon we'll be up to 100.
38:39And we have clear and decisive answers to the role of some of these materials.
38:45Because when we look at the chemicals, the molecules in our skin, the smelly molecules,
38:49we find molecules of exactly the same shape and size in other animals, like pigs and goats, for example.
38:56And in those animals, they behave as frank sexual pheromones, sexual messages between the two sexes, which initiate sexual activity.
39:05In other words, they are aphrodisiacs in the classical sense.
39:14How powerful are pheromones?
39:17In France, truffle farmers know how to get the most out of a pig's attraction for pheromones.
39:34This healthy sow smells the sexiest boar in the world.
39:38Only for some reason, he seems to be underground.
39:42By a strange twist of fate, gourmet mushrooms called truffles smell exactly like boar musk.
39:53And when she smells them, the female pig goes berserk with desire.
39:58All she can find are splotchy mushrooms.
40:01The farmer's delighted, but for the sow, how confusing.
40:05Here, we can peel it. We can eat it quickly.
40:12Then it feels good. It feels very good.
40:15Truffles are so important in France, there are regional festivals in their honor.
40:40People flock to the market each year to assess the season's delicious crop.
40:47Experienced buyers smell for quality, inhaling the strong, musty aroma that some believe arouses erotic feelings in humans, as well as pigs.
41:05Here's the good truffles. The black diamond of Kersi has its taste, its good taste, but it is also aphrodisiac.
41:21We certainly have an interesting link with truffles, because we know that truffles has as its key flavor ingredient a molecule which is the sexual pheromone of the pig.
41:42Now, we have that same chemical in our bodies. That probably explains why we have this unconscious longing to indulge in truffles.
41:51And certainly it hints at the possibility that that is also playing a role in sexual attraction with us.
41:58And of course, as you know, in the traditional musk of perfumes, there are also similar molecules.
42:05Now, when we come back to the same molecules in our skin, and we ask what they do for us, there the answers are much less clear.
42:12We know that they affect our moods, and we know that we are very sensitive to them.
42:16It's very difficult to see, though, very powerful aphrodisiacal effects.
42:21But I think it would be very fair to say that if we were making a choice between being with two equally attractive people, and one had more pheromones than another,
42:32despite the fact that most people wouldn't be aware of using their scent to smell consciously,
42:36you might prefer to be with one person and find them more agreeable than the other by measuring their pheromone content literally with your nose.
42:46One known source of pheromones is good old-fashioned sweat.
42:56Some women find sweaty male bodies intoxicating, but is it the imagined thrill of the man's body,
43:02or is there a real body chemistry of pheromonal molecules at work?
43:11One person who appreciated such distinctive male odors was Helen Keller,
43:15who used her acute sense of smell to compensate for her vision and hearing loss.
43:20She wrote,
43:22In the odor of young men, there is something elemental as of fire, storm, and salt sea.
43:29It pulsates with buoyancy and desire.
43:34It suggests all the things strong and beautiful and joyous,
43:40and gives me a sense of physical happiness.
43:43Helen Keller could not see or hear a male approaching, but she could smell and enjoy all his subtle aromas.
44:01I must say, it does smell good in here. Some smells we were just born to love.
44:20Basically, men are smellier. We produce more smell than females on average.
44:26But in addition to that, we are less sweet.
44:29The uranous heavy molecules, the key animal notes in perfumes, men tend to make more than women.
44:36And that raises some very interesting questions for the designer perfumes.
44:41Of course, if the smell business were all a matter of molecular chemistry, the formula for success would be simple.
44:54Sophia Grossman would just add a pheromone to her new male fragrance, and voila, love zombies.
45:00No one has managed to bottle human musks and pheromones, despite all we know about the fine aphrodisia of animal secretions.
45:11And in their pure form, animal notes smell ferociously foul.
45:16So a skilled perfumer will always be needed, as a master juggler of smells.
45:22She doesn't like John more that much.
45:24Does he love this one?
45:25No, he just gave it to me to show me.
45:28Because she had said it better be in a new game.
45:31But in the smell business, scent judgments are highly personal.
45:35And the client for Sophia's new male fragrance will be the final judge of her formula's appeal.
45:43I like the warmth of it. I think that it's starting to come together much better.
45:47It's less of those traditional notes as well.
45:49Well, it doesn't smell traditional at all, actually.
45:52Ann Gottlieb, a noted nose herself, is representing the client.
46:00She knows Sophia well, and despite the friendly banter, will ultimately recommend Sophia's scent or reject it.
46:07This is a happy fragrance. It really is.
46:12Smell it in comparison to this, because I don't think that this is any more masculine.
46:20This just has this pitch that we're looking to build into your submission.
46:24It's a lot more volatile to me.
46:29There's also a little bit more depth, I think.
46:32You know what, Sophia? Let's look at it on a man's skin.
46:35Maybe you're responding to it because of Tammy's skin.
46:38Let's look at it on Nicholas's skin.
46:39It's possible. I'm looking at Tammy. I cannot think of man's pregnancy.
46:42Right. So let's look at it on Nicholas's skin.
46:43Is that okay?
46:44Are you clean?
46:46Yes? Do you have clean skin?
46:47Yes.
46:48Good. Okay.
46:49Which one should I try?
46:50Um, let's just try this one.
46:51This one?
46:52Yeah, try that one.
46:58I always love smelling on men's skin because the hair is tickling my nose.
47:00Yes, exactly.
47:01Try it here.
47:02Actually, you drove.
47:03See? That's better.
47:05Is it very different than the dry down?
47:09Do you smell the difference?
47:11Even though this is really newer, it's not different enough.
47:17It's still not enough, um, of a pitch coming through.
47:21And I really think that you need to go back and play with that top note some more.
47:25Yes, yes.
47:27Maybe I have to increase the body part first and then look for another dimension.
47:31What's our deadline?
47:32We really are in a hurry for this.
47:35How soon do you think that you can have modifications?
47:38Sophia must try again.
47:40This is not uncommon.
47:41Perfumes rarely succeed on the first try.
47:44But now the pressure is on.
47:46You mean you're not working Saturday?
47:48Sometimes.
47:52Well, we'll all have the fragrances for the weekend.
47:54Right.
47:55Today's Friday, we'll have them for the weekend.
47:56Right.
47:57We'll reconvene on Monday with new, um, with your comments.
48:01Okay.
48:02Do you think we should meet Monday?
48:03Knowing Sophia, she will continue to work all weekend.
48:05I'm sure.
48:06Do you think we should meet Monday?
48:07Oh, I think we should meet Monday.
48:08Yes?
48:09Monday afternoon, maybe.
48:10Okay.
48:112.30, would that be okay?
48:12Is that okay?
48:132.30 is good.
48:142.30 is great.
48:15Soph, you around?
48:16You okay?
48:17Yes.
48:182.30.
48:19I don't have any appointments on Monday.
48:20Okay, 2.30 and.
48:21I'm always fine.
48:22You do now.
48:23So, 2.30 and Gottlieb.
48:24Great.
48:25home.
48:26You're right.
48:284.30
48:43The料理 of 오코
48:45It Olde Central
48:48That comes to it.
48:50look so���gy
48:51We think it's a gift
48:54are buried deep in the culture and memory of Omani people, who cherish them as their
48:59own. Tonight, the men will perfume themselves as their ancestors did, or they will create
49:08slightly new fragrances from mixtures of scents that they find pleasing.
49:19In this society, creating a fragrance is not difficult. The centuries have eased the way.
49:37At one point, they were saying that I am doing better under the pressure than off the pressure.
49:43And they decided that the more pressure they are going to give me, the better off I am
49:46going to be. So they all sit on my neck. But this is, this is, it's stupid because, you
49:51know, this is that much I can do. Gloria? I like that 7B. It's very good. Can I have that formula
50:01and let's, thank you. Let's see if we can add a little more.
50:14Sophia Grossman and her colleagues worked long into the night.
50:18Most of the skin has been used today, right? We'll get other skin later. This is good. This
50:33is good. This is good. I will tell you what I need here. In the 33, I think there is more
50:43of that something that they are not liking, the spicy thing. But I think it's very important
50:48to hear again. What they don't like about it is on top. But after a while, I mean, initially,
50:54when you put your nose up to it, Sophia, it's got a, it's, I know you don't want the citrus
50:59part, but it is very citrusy. Okay? I mean, but after 15 minutes or so, would you use a little
51:02brighter to me? Yeah, of course. That's what we're trying to do. I know. It's not easy. I know.
51:21I know. The next day, to her disappointment, Sophia's fragrance was rejected. This is where
51:36her unused formulas end up. In the barred and bolted morgue of industry secrets. It is a vault of records that
51:49back up to Sophia's extraordinary olfactory memory. In this industry, no one succeeds every time.
51:56Tomorrow, there will be a new challenge. And who knows, perhaps another grand party.
52:08Soon, millions will be able to sample Sophia's latest creation. But its ultimate success will be determined by sales, as well as the beauty of its bouquet.
52:29That's because smell is a big business and an art form. When we give someone perfume, what we're really giving them is liquid memory.
52:44One smell can be unexpected, fleeting, and yet carry us across time and space to forgotten moments in our lives.
52:53Those smell memories linger deep in the brain, but they're always ready to spirit us straight back to childhood or create great expectations of things to come.
53:03The End
53:12Oh, my God.
53:42Mystery of the senses
54:12was produced by WETA Washington and WGBH Boston,
54:17which are solely responsible for its content.
54:20A production of WETA Washington and WGBH Boston.
54:28This is PBS.