Study: Male Sweat a Turn-On for Women
A recent study conducted by the UC Berkeley Olfactory Research Project suggested that a compound found in male sweat can boost women’s sexual arousal and mood.
The compound, called androstadienone, causes “”physiological and psychological changes in women,”” postdoctoral fellow of the project Claire Wyart said in a university news release.
Twenty-one healthy heterosexual women participated in the study, and were asked to rate their mood and watch a soothing nature video before the experiment took place.
Next, they smelled a jar containing concentrated AND and another containing baker’s yeast. While they sniffed, researchers monitored the women’s blood pressure, temperature, heart rate and behavior.
Participants concluded the experiment by watching five-minute video segments of sad, funny or erotic content, followed by 10-minute videos with emotionally neutral content.
Women rated their mood, the pleasantness of each odor they had sniffed and their level of sexual arousal.
Findings showed after smelling AND, the women had higher mood, sexual arousal and cortisol levels than when they smelled baker’s yeast, although they rated the pleasantness of the odors comparably.
“”Sweat is a complex mixture,”” Wyart’s team stated. “”It is possible that many more of the hundreds of molecules in sweat can induce a variety of endocrine changes.””
UCSD Aids Families After Disasters
On Feb. 2, a wave of tornadoes brought tragedy to four counties in central Florida, destroying countless homes, causing an extensive outage in phone and power services and cutting off many families from communication with loved ones. The American Red Cross is implementing a form of technological help.
UCSD’s San Diego Supercomputer Center is supporting the Red Cross’ efforts, hosting the Safe and Well Web site, which allows residents to report a “”safe and well”” status to alert friends and family of their well-being.
The Web site is an extension of a similar program that the SDSC developed after Hurricane Katrina, which included a missing and found list of displaced people.
