Our ability to detect odours – and how strong or pleasant we find them – also depends on how those detectors work in our own individual noses. We smell a fragrance like violets when a chemical called beta-ionone binds to a detector known as OR5A1. But for about half of people, that detector simply doesn't work. You'll never be able to smell beta-ionone if you're one of them, no matter how much of it is sitting in a vial in front of you.

— Read more in The great smell-off: TikTok sparks debate on American vs European noses at BBC.

The researchers found that C. elegans can sense the odor of pathogens and get its intestinal cells ready to withstand the impending attack.

This discovery raises an intriguing question – Is there actually a smell coming off of pathogens that we can pick up on and help us fight off an infection?

— Read more in Is it possible to smell pathogens and fight them before an infection? at Earth.com.

But researchers in Germany who had men sniff women’s body odour found no compelling evidence that it was more attractive when the women were at their most fertile. And they saw no variations in the odour’s chemical makeup linked to peak fertility.

— Read more in Men may not be more attracted to scent of fertile women, study says at The Guardian.

In previous studies, we already showed that the rapid perception of faces, which are highly relevant visual inputs for infants, is shaped by another highly salient sensory signal for them, the mother’s body odor.

To do that, we relied on electroencephalography (EEG) and measured a face-selective neural response that is enhanced by the presence of the mother’s odor in the 4-month-old brain.

— Read more in Infants Use Mom’s Scent to Recognize Faces at Neuroscience News.