Brooklyn Nets Use Signature Scent at Barclay Center

If you think about professional basketball and try to associate it with a scent, you would probably come up with Eau de Locker Room, stale beer or fried food, but an NBA team is out to change that. The Brooklyn Nets is now using a scent various described as "perfumey" "clean"
or citrusy"" to make their arena more pleasant for the fans.

The scent, provided by Scent Air, is intended to go with Barclay's high end look and menu. Barclay Center is a brand new, billion dollar facility owned by Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov.

Scent Air also provides scent marketing for other professional sports teams including the Atlanta Hawks, St. Louis Rams, and Dallas Cowboys.

Prototype Smart Phone Attachment Adds Scent

A new attachment for smart phones allows users to add scent to their life through their phones. Social media friends can send each other scents and it will be able interface with other applications like games. Because this is a new technology that is not widely available, there are not yet apps that utilize it, but ChatPerf, the company that developed this new device, thinks that will be coming.

Watch Out Bloodhounds: Humans Can Track by Scent Too!

-->

Experimenters at Berkeley have discovered that humans can track by smell, similar to the way dogs can. With evolution, our sense of smell has become a less prominent part of our sensory survival arsenal and it was thought that although we could detect smells, we were not able to follow a scent trail to its source. Now, scientists have found that is not the case.

In the experiment, they dribbled chocolate essential oil in a field, leading to actual chocolate at the end. Volunteers were put into a suit that deprived them of all senses other than smell (blindfold for the eyes, ears covered and hands and feet covered to blunt the sense of touch). Then they were asked to find the chocolate.

Like dogs, they got on all fours and started sniffing the ground to identify the smell and follow it. They were observed to use the same methodology as dogs, which is sniffing from side to side. They were able to detect which nostril the scent was strongest on and continually criss-crossing the scent trail, making corrections based on which side the scent was strongest.

Of course, it is also true that humans can detect a much lower concentration of the scent molecules compared to a dog, but it still has interesting implications for scent marketing. What if, instead of or in addition to ambient scent, a store used a scent trail to lead to its higher margin products?

The Smell of White

Combine everything and you get a unique sensory outcome we call "white." With light, all colors together create white light. With sound, all different frequencies combine to make white sound. Now, scientists have created olfactory white.

To create this indescribable smell, they chose 86 different odor molecules and diluted them to the same intensity. Then they combined them in different configurations. They found that when the mixtures included 30 or more of the compounds, they began to smell alike, regardless of which odor molecules were in the mixture and even if they shared no odor molecules in common.

The neutralization comes about because no one odor is dominant and the smells range over the range of scents humans can detect, effectively canceling each other out. This even distribution of smells is highly unlikely to occur in nature, but scientists are hoping that like white noise and white light, olfactory white can be used in the study of olfaction.

Scientists Restore Sense of Smell Using Gene Therapy

Can you imagine what it would be like to never have had a sense of smell? Those born with congenital anosmia have never smelled a rose, or freshly popped popcorn, chocolate, or any of the smells that inform and enrich our lives. Now, for the first time, scientists have discovered a way to possibly give this missing sense to those without a sense of smell.

Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School, working with colleagues at other schools, were able to restore the ability to smell to mice. The mice had a genetic defect which negatively impacted the cilia throughout their bodies. Cilia are instrumental in smelling and also affect other body parts and their functions, like the eyes and kidneys. The researchers used gene therapy to spur the olfactory neurons to regrow the cilia.

The mice were injected with the virus that causes the common cold that had the normal IFT88 genes loaded in it. When the mice got the virus, the gene loaded into their DNA. Within 2 weeks, they had a 60% increase in their body weight, an indication that they were eating more which is linked to a better sense of smell.

The therapy, which will not be available to humans for years, only addresses anosmia caused by cilia dysfunction, not that caused by head trauma, aging or chronic sinus problems. Because cilia dysfunction also causes other, more serious diseases, the therapy could be used to treat a host of other problems. Smells promising!

Happy Smells

The universal search for happiness is evident from the sales of anti-depressants hitting new highs, but maybe happiness is just a sniff away. Here are some happy smells that might make you skip that next prescription refill.

Roses or jasmine flowers - "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet..." Flower smells have been used for centuries in aromatherapy, and research at Rutgers University's Human Emotions Laboratory has confirmed that floral scents can triple the number of people's immediate happy thoughts. They can also promote more social interaction.

Lemon - The bright scent of lemon oil has been shown to improve mood, give a boost of energy and reduce anxiety. In as study at Le Moyne College, researchers found that in the presence of a lemon scent, people are perceived more positively. (Lemony perfume for the job interview might not be a bad idea.)

Lavender - In aromatherapy, lavender is one of the most used essential oils. Scientists at the University of Miami School of Medicine found that smelling it improved mood, made people feel more relaxed and actually helped them solve math problems faster. Lavender is also used to reduce anxiety and even increase sexual arousal.

Liquorice - A study at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation showed that the smell of liquorice makes people happier, and also is the #1 smell (combined with doughnuts) that makes men more physically aroused. Liquorice has been found to increase the availability of serotonin in the brain, helping to fight depression.

Sony Comes Out with Scent Capturing Printer

Chinese designer Li Jingxuan has created a scent capturing printer for Sony as part of a student workshop sponsored by the company to identify innovative technical ideas. The printer actually uses an electronic nose sensor which detects and captures smells and then uses pattern recognition to reproduce them. It uses aroma-based inks on special postcard sized photo paper with a clear film. When the film is peeled back, the scent is released. 

Great for vacationers and foodies, the printer easily can fit in a purse or backpack. The company hasn't yet said when the scent printer will be available.