Pheromone News and Research

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Researchers unlock mystery of a third olfactory system

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found a "nose within the nose," a unique olfactory system within the noses of mice that is able to "smell" hormones involved in regulating water and salt balance in the body.

30 Aug 2007

Scientists make female mice act blokey!

By short-circuiting the sensory organ that detects the chemical cues mice use to attract mates, a team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers has prompted female mice to behave like male mice in the throes of courtship.

6 Aug 2007

Vomeronasal organ differentiates male and female behavior in some mammals

For years, scientists have searched in vain for slivers of the brain that might drive the dramatic differences between male and female behavior.

6 Aug 2007

Sniff of male sweat kick starts female hormones

According to a new study all a healthy heterosexual woman needs to give their hormone levels a kick start is the smell of a man's sweat.

8 Feb 2007

New smart anti-microbial approach to preventing tooth decay

Preventing cavities could one day involve the dental equivalent of a military surgical strike. A team of researchers supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research report they have created a new smart anti-microbial treatment that can be chemically programmed in the laboratory to seek out and kill a specific cavity-causing species of bacteria, leaving the good bacteria untouched.

23 Oct 2006

Father's pheromonal cues may influence daughter's first occurrence of menstruation

Chemical cues from fathers may be delaying the onset of sexual maturity in daughters, as part of an evolutionary strategy to prevent inbreeding, according to researchers at Penn State.

12 Sep 2006

Olfactory epithelium plays a critical role in pheromone detection

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered that pheromones essential for mating behavior in mice are recognized by the nose and not by the vomeronasal system, as researchers had long suspected.

14 Nov 2005

First step in exploring the GnRH reproduction-related circuitry in the brain

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered a vast network of neurons in the brain of mice that governs reproduction and controls the effects of reproductive status on other brain functions.

14 Nov 2005

Sniffing out a partner

Beneath the perfume, soap and deodorant, it seems that the old smelly rules of attraction still apply.

1 Jun 2005

Secrets of how the brain is wired for sex revealed

There are two brain structures that a mouse just can't do without when it comes to hooking up with the mate of its dreams--and trying to stay off the lunch menu of the neighborhood cat. These are the amygdala, which is involved in the initial response to cues that signal love or war, and the hypothalamus, which coordinates the innate reproductive or defensive behaviors triggered by these cues.

23 May 2005

Swedish study suggests gay men's brains differ from heterosexual men's

Researchers in Sweden have found that a compound taken from male sweat stimulates the brains of gay men and straight women but not heterosexual men, which raises the possibility that homosexual brains are different.

9 May 2005

Researchers have identified a protein in the inner ear that translates sound into the nerve impulses used by the brain

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and their colleagues report in the October 13 Nature advanced on-line edition that they have identified a protein deep in the inner ear that they believe translates sound into the nerve impulses used by the brain.

13 Oct 2004

Breastfeeding women increase sexual desire among other women

Breastfeeding women and their infants produce a substance that increases sexual desire among other women, according to research at the University of Chicago.

6 Oct 2004

Linda Buck has been named winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine

Linda Buck, Ph.D., a member of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Basic Sciences Division, has been named winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

5 Oct 2004

Natural organohalogens have potent anticancer and antibacterial activity

Human made chemical compounds called organohalogens get loads of attention as they are best known for their often harmful effect on the environment - substances like the CFCs (the ozone-damaging chemicals), dioxin (found in the herbicide Agent Orange), PCBs (industrial fluids) and several pesticides.

22 Jul 2004

Research shows there is no substitute for reliable birth control

US research published (Thursday 10 June) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction suggests that a single act of unprotected intercourse is more likely to lead to an unwanted pregnancy than was previously believed.

12 Jun 2004

Oxidants are responsible for sex in algae

Colonies of the multicellular green alga Volvox carteri exposed to temperatures of 111 degrees Fahrenheit (42.5 degrees Celsius) had twice the amount of free radicals, oxidants that can damage biological structures, as unheated colonies. High levels of oxidants within their cells activated the algae's sex-inducer gene, the researchers report.

11 Jun 2004

How rat's genetic blueprint stacks up against those of mice and humans

An international research team, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced it has completed a high-quality, draft sequence of the genome of the laboratory rat, and has used that data to explore how the rat's genetic blueprint stacks up against those of mice and humans.

31 Mar 2004