A perfume may be developed for male kakapo in a bid to make them more attractive to the opposite sex of the endangered species.
This follows research into why some males of the native parrot have greater pulling power than others.
— From Kakapo perfume could get them breeding at stuff.co.nz.
Babies will smile when they catch the scent of vanilla, but a whiff of rotting meat will send them into fits. From people to mice and flies to worms, animals of all kinds are born with likes and dislikes thanks to the evolutionary wisdom collected in their genes. But new research shows that some preferences are still surprisingly flexible at even the most basic level - that of the sensory neuron itself - and that our nervous system may be even more adaptable than we thought.
— From Beyond recognizing odors, a single neuron controls reactions at News-Medical.net.
You know, as headlines go, “Parrots, worms” is is either the best one I've seen in a long time, or the worst. Not quite sure. 🙂
I would imagine that a lot of the scent preference stuff would be cultural, i.e., learned, after getting past a certain threshold of basic “this is disgusting”.
Oh, I think it's got to be in the running for worst. Titles are not my specialty.
And agree — it's always interesting to me how culturally-based our conception of “clean” is, for instance, or “baby”, in terms of smell.
“Clean” is a good one. And I hope I did not tick you off re: headline. I was trying ti be funny, but you know how that can go.
Gracious no! I did not agonize over the “Parrots, worms” title (obviously!) and I don't generally tick off so very easily 🙂