First Nerve

American Smellscapes: Northern Vermont

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:47:00 +0000

In Vermont today, I left I-89 and headed north on VT 100 toward Stowe. With the windows down I drove through three distinct odor plumes: skunk, lilac, and cow manure. Can’t bring those to you but I did capture an ambient soundscape of spring peepers.

Traffic Report: How Fare the Fragrance Blogs?

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:13:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I took the pulse of the smelly blogosphere using weekly Alexa traffic rankings. The Smelly Web Indexes™ used to be a regular feature here but fragrance blogs come and go at such a clip that it’s tough to maintain a consistent set of sites for tracking. Also, Alexa data are better for long-term trends than for weekly fever-charting.

While in the wine cellar yesterday dusting off a bottle of the 1981 Château Lamothe Despujols Sauternes, I heard a piteous mewling from the data monkeys in the sub-basement. They hadn’t been fed recently so I tossed them a fresh bag of Doritos and grabbed the latest data on a thumb drive.

I decided to compare traffic rankings for the first 20 weeks of 2013 to the same period last year. Here is what I found.

Winners

Three sites are doing better than last year; all are highly ranked: Perfume Posse, Bois de Jasmin, and The Non-Blonde. Perfume Posse is flying steady while the latter two seem to be in a seasonal fade.

Staying in the Game

Three sites are more or less tracking last year’s performance: Perfume Smellin’ Things, Katie Puckrick Smells, and Firmenich’s OzMoz. A fourth—1000 Fragrances—is relatively stable after big decline in 2012.

Steady Under-Performers

Five sites are consistently underperforming last year’s rankings: NST Perfume, Scented Salamander, Perfume Shrine, I Smell Therefore I Am, and Grain de Musc. The first three are among the highest ranking fragrance blogs.

Narrowing the Gap

Two sites are slowing climbing back to where they were last year: FirstNerve and the Fragrance Foundation’s Fragrance.org.

Glide Path

The Base Notes fragrance community site started the year at 2012 levels but is on a steady downward trend. Still, it remains one of the highest ranked sites in the smelly blogosphere.

Sudden Loss of Altitude

Four sites display abrupt downward deflections in traffic rank this year: Bonkers About Perfume, Mai Que Perfume, Pink Manhattan, and Indie Perfumes. The first three all lost altitude around the same time—namely, the week ending March 17, 2013.

Well, there you have it.

It should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway—I take no pleasure in observing traffic ranking declines. These are all high quality sites of long standing and I respect the blog owners, many of whom I have met. My interest is in finding out what the numbers might say about public enthusiasm for our topic and our individual ways of addressing it.

I don’t have much in the way of interpretation. I wonder whether the demise of Google’s Feed Burner has anything to do with the trends. I’d like to hear your observations and theories.

Advice Columnist Steers Widower to Certain Disaster

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:26:00 +0000

Okay, so it’s not exactly I Smell Dead People—more like “I smell my late wife’s perfume on my new girlfriend and it’s a problem.” Advice columnist Jann Blackstone tells the guy to avoid being truthful because “rarely do women like to be compared to one another” and because it might look like problematic devotion to his late wife.

Hmmm.

Blackstone advises the widower to shop for a new perfume for the GF, and perhaps even “take her with you and actually spend some time together in the process.” This sounds good at a theoretical level: use the power of scent to create positive new associations. But at a practical level it is a recipe for disaster.

Choosing a fragrance for another person is difficult enough; add the emotional undercurrents of this relationship and it’s fraught with peril. Secondly, Blackstone is directing the guy to the women’s fragrance counter: seldom a comfortable situation for a male. All we know is that the widower liked his wife’s perfume, not that he is knowledgeable about or even interested in women’s perfume in general, much less at ease browsing for it. So Blackstone is recommending that the guy give style advice, no matter how indirectly, to a woman he doesn’t know that well yet, and do it in the live-fire zone of a fragrance counter.

This strike me as well-intentioned but terrible advice.

Now Showing at Ohio State: Plant Porn and Tuber Abuse

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Wed, 15 May 2013 01:02:00 +0000

It may have other virtues, but from my point of view Columbus, Ohio, is best known as the HQ of Limited Brands, Inc. (restyled L Brands, for the moment). Sure, there’s also a football team there with a university attached, but honestly . . .

So it’s a big deal when Fox News calls attention to a non-athletic event in Columbus. And selling tickets to watch a plant grow pretty much defines non-athletic leisure-time entertainment:

Ohio State greenhouse watches 1 stinky corpse flower’s rare bloom, awaits opening of a 2nd

Two quibbles:

Firstly, corpse flower isn’t the plant’s real name; it’s a PR monicker. Apparently the direct translation of the scientific name Amorphophallus titanum is too rude for school, although giant misshapen penis pretty much captures the concept for me. Legend has it that David Attenborough came up with the sanitized name when he filmed his BBC series.

Secondly, how legit is it to call a flower “rare” when it has blossomed four times in two years, in Columbus, Ohio alone?

A 6-foot titan arum opened Tuesday to release its rotting-flesh smell two years after it first flowered. A second corpse flower opened briefly at the greenhouse last May, and a third is expected to open in seven to 10 days.

Thirdly, [Wait, you said two quibbles.—Ed.] [Zip it, I’m on a roll here.] are the folks at the OSU greenhouse behaving . . . ethically? I mean, left to themselves these Indonesian tubers go all giant penis every 20 years or so.

Spokeswoman Sandi Rutkowski says having three or four blooms within three years is lucky but also is a tribute to the skill of cultivators at the greenhouse.

Skill? What exactly are those OSU ~~athletic trainers~~ cultivators doing to produce ~~325 lb linemen~~ corpse flower blossoms every two years?

Land of the Rising Scent

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:24:00 +0000

Japan is a bit of an enigma when it comes to smell. The Japanese avoid wearing strong Western-style perfume yet their long history of incense creation and appreciation speaks to an ongoing fascination with the olfactory.

The country is home to Smell Club and is a hotbed of innovation in smell technology. Japan keeps alive the dream of Smell-O-Vision: telecom giant NTT created wifi odor globes to provide a scent-track for showings of Terrence Malick’s movie The New World. NTT also produced the i-Aroma, a PC-linked device loaded with six scents. Researchers in Tokyo recently perfected a colliding airstream arrangement that give the illusion of smells emerging from specific places on a computer screen. And Nissan has developed a logoscent for its dealership showrooms and auto show events.

Still, watching items on Japanese smell technology jump off the newsfeed I sometimes experience a little déjà vu. It happened again today and I decided to investigate.

The item was about a gizmo, called the ChatPerf, that plugs into your iPhone and releases a puff of (a single) scent on software command. The link was to a YouTube of a young lady demonstrating the device. The video was uploaded today, but a little googling shows that the device has been kicking since last fall—an eternity in tech dog-years. It debuted in October, followed a few days later by a post on Slashgear, and a day later Elena Vosnaki at PerfumeShrine wrote about it. [I got your déjà vu right here.—Ed.]

The ChatPerf device has a website (still dated 2012) which pictures a different, presumably earlier version of the plug-in. The inventors seem not to know what to do with their new baby—the website implores people to suggest applications.

The questions linger: Is it vaporware? Why keep pushing it? Who is behind it? Can I get one? Does it synch with Fart Piano?

UPDATE May 14, 2013

ChatPerf, the company—or perhaps just some guy in a bathrobe on the 18th floor of the Akasaka East Tower in Tokyo’s Minato-ku precinct—behind the smelly iPhone plug-in gets more free publicity as ExtremeTech and Mashable treat the story as new.

I tweeted my own suggestions for smell-iPhone apps:

Can you change me now? Instant full diaper alert app from Pampers.
Instagas: It’s a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your bean burrito with friends and family.
Belch: Eat, drink and share the post-ingestive effects with the Belch community of restaurant raters.

ISDP May 2013: The Barrister’s Chimney &c.

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:31:00 +0000

The thirteenth of the month creaks into position once again as this long, chilly spring climbs slowly into the temperature range favorable to ISDP incidents. Things have been so sparse we even skipped the April edition. Despite the weather, we bring you a few new examples of those lugubrious events where isolation, malfeasance, insanity, or the worst kind of bad luck inevitably lead to the grimmest foul odor of all.

After maintenance workers “reported a foul odor,” police made a gruesome discovery inside a Union, New Jersey, apartment on March 26.

Authorities said Friday they’re still not sure what caused the death of a woman found in an apartment with her emaciated 4-year-old son, who had been alone with her body for days, living off a bag of sugar.

The good news is that “adoption offers have poured in from around the world.” The apartment belongs to the boy’s grandmother, whose move to a nursing home following hip replacement surgery led to her daughter and grandson moving in. Authorities are looking for other relatives for the boy to live with.

The headline from Ottawa, Kansas: “Three bodies found on farm: foul smell led to horrific find.” The bodies were discovered by three local residents who went there to check on a friend they had not heard from in days. Two of them—Kortni McGill and Corey Schlotzhauer—had visited the farm the day before:

When they got there they smelled a foul odor coming from the south side of the home and called police.

McGill said sheriff’s deputies went into the home and came out 10 to 15 minutes later, saying they didn't find anything and the smell was probably trash. She said the deputies then peered inside a large garage on the opposite side of the house, where there also was a strong, foul smell, but dismissed it as garbage and left.

McGill and Schlotzhauer returned to the home Monday with Osladil to feed the resident’s dog and investigate the strong smell again.

Always trust your nose!

The victims have been identified and an arrest made.

We don’t usually cover ISDP incidents abroad, but material has been rather thin lately so here goes. We note that a law firm in Derby, England, plagued by a bad smell and swarms of flies, eventually located within its building’s chimney the decomposing remains of a 42-year old local man with convictions for burglary and breaking and entering. A surprising number of people end up this way.

We leave you on a musical note, with “Under a Blackened Sky,” the new release by Knoxville “groove metal” act Scent of Remains.

Something New: Smell-O-Verse

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Sat, 11 May 2013 17:52:00 +0000

Image via List.co.uk

A poetry reading with a scent matched to each poem.

Damn. I wish I’d thought of that. But Alex Musgrave got there first.

He’s a writer and fragrance blogger (The Silver Fox) who also manages the Penhaligon’s store in Edinburgh, Scotland. Join him for “My Life in Poetry (& Perfume)” on Thursday, May 30th at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. Event include live music + champagne. What’s not to like?

The Bat Woman of Oz

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:59:00 +0000

Caragh Threlfall, a postdoc at the University of Melbourne, is my kind of field scientist. She studied predation on urban bat roosts in Sydney, Australia, by collecting and redistributing little piles of bat shit. Really. Actually, she managed to convince other people to collect a lot of the shit for her. (She clearly has potential to run a lab at full professor rank.—Ed.)

What’s the polite scientific phrase for “we collected and redistributed bat shit”? Simple: “we experimentally manipulated the amount and refresh rate of roosting odour cues.”

It turns out that predators like rats and ringtail possums key in on the smell of bat poop. Paradoxically, tiny amounts of poop spurred the most visits by predators, who probably figured it was from a solitary bat and therefore easy pickings. The attractiveness of poop to predators may be one reason large urban roosts move to a new location every few days.

Remember folks, FirstNerve is your online source for complete, ongoing coverage of Australian bat shit.

Celebuscent Train Wreck of the Month: Selena Gomez Knee-Deep in Lawsuits

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Fri, 10 May 2013 02:19:00 +0000

Selena Gomez has countersued the fragrance company licensed to produce her celebuscent. Honestly, folks, you could see this one coming a mile away. In fact, I did and I wrote about it fourteen months ago:

So to recap: What do Adam Levine and Selena Gomez have in common? They’ve licensed their celebuscents to an under-capitalized company with slim revenues that may not be able to stay in business long enough to market their products successfully.

The U-CC under discussion was Adrenalina Inc., and the sorry state of its affairs was obvious to anyone who took the time to read the company’s most recent SEC filing.

Evidently Selena Gomez’s agent or business manager couldn’t be bothered to check it out. So . . . she signs a deal, she quits the deal, Adrenalina sues her, and now she sues them back.

So many celebs. So much perfume. So many lawyers.

Virtual Smellscapes: The Dead Man’s Nose

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:43:00 +0000

Via Dead Men’s Eyes

Stuart Eve, a grad student in archaeology at University College London, is the guy behind the Dead Men’s Eyes blog/project (“A mixture of Augmented Reality and Heritage. Bringing past-worlds to life.”). He’s just unveiled the Dead Man’s Nose (DMN), a virtual system that coordinates smells and sights with actual physical locations.

Using my embodied GIS [Geographic Information System] of the roundhouses on Leskernick Hill, Bodmin Moor, I set the DMN to fire off a smell of lovely Barbeque whenever I got within 20m of a roundhouse. I set the fan to run slowly at first and get faster as I got closer to the ‘source’ of the smell. The DMN performed admirably, as I walked within range of the houses I heard the tell-tale whirr of the fan and the next moment I had the lovely scent of cooking ribs. Future models will allow for more than one smell at a time (I just need a couple more computer fans) and also a better housing, a bit of 3D printing is in order!

Now I can use the iPad to view the roundhouses overlaid onto the video feed, plug in my headphones and hear 3D sounds that get louder or quieter depending on where I am in the settlement and also I can augment different smells as I walk around. Not only can I walk around the modern day Bronze Age landscape and see the augmented roundhouses, hear the Bronze Age sheep in the distance, I can also smell the fires burning and the dinner cooking as I get closer to the village….

Readily available technology + clever design = an immersive olfacto- spatial- temporal experience. Neato!

Festival dell’Olfatto

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:01:00 +0000

This looks interesting. Check it out if you are in Bologna, Italy, May 21 to 26, 2013.

American Smellscapes: Spring 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:41:00 +0000

In the North Forty of FN Manor

From Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass: When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d.

In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle . . . and from this bush in the door-yard,
With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig, with its flower, I break.

Are Foodie Noses Different?

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Tue, 07 May 2013 02:20:00 +0000

This title caught my eye the other day: “Food neophobia and its relation with olfactory ability in common odour identification.” It’s an article that will appear soon in print in Appetite. [Don’t you mean Bon Appétit?—Ed.] [No, I mean Appetite, the scientific journal. Keep up.]

The paper describes a study by an Italian research group using what looks like a sample of convenience, i.e., they surveyed people at their own research institute and the one next door. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, necessarily.

Participants were given an Italian translation of the Food Neophobia Scale, a questionnaire that measures one’s willingness to try unfamiliar foods. Then they were asked to identify three dozen odors drawn from the commercially available Nez du Vin collection of common wine-related scents. [Stimuli of convenience?—Ed.] [Har har.]

Few of the study participants were strongly food neophobic. The relatively more neophobic half of the sample correctly identified 35% of the test odors, while the less neophobic half got 40% correct. Viewed another way, respondents with good odor identification had an average food neophobia score of 35, while the those with poor odor identification averaged 40 (i.e., they were slightly more neophobic).

Neither difference was large but both were statistically significant. This allowed the researchers to summarize as follows:

In the analyses, an advantage in odour identification abilities for non-neophobic people over more-neophobic participants was observed. [...] The results of the present study suggest a connection between the attitude toward the exploration of the chemosensory environment and the ability to identify odours.

I suppose that’s a fair conclusion. The effect size is not overwhelming, but then it was found in a population that was distinctly middle-of-the-road, food neophobia-wise. (The upside of a sample of convenience . . .)

What leaves me feeling somewhat unsatisfied is the circular nature of the larger food neophobia hypothesis. It seems to boil down to “people with broader food selection in their diet tend to be less food neophobic.” But that’s going to be true by definition, isn’t it?

P.S. Speaking of new foods, I had my first Chik-fil-A experience at the AChemS meeting in California. A Spicy Chicken Sandwich at the franchise in Westminster near Huntington Beach. Tasty!

P.P.S. I also recommend the corn dog at Zack’s snack shack at the base of the Huntington Beach Pier. Just the right ratio of corn dough to hot dog. [Quite le bec fin, aren’t we?—Ed.] [I’m an enthusiastic advocate of indigenous American cuisine.]

P.P.P.S. The Main Street Wine Company in HB has a great tasting selection and nice cheese and charcuterie plates to go with it.

P.P.P.P.S. Some friends at the AChemS meeting said “Let’s have dinner at this Mexican place,” so we drove down the PCH to Javier’s in the Crystal Cove Mall in Newport Beach. Holy mole! Javier’s valet parking was full of Maseratis and BMWs and Benzs. Inside were numerous fire pits, masses of burning candles, several water features and a men’s room attendant (the last one I encountered was 15 years ago at the Oyster Bar in The Plaza). The place was full of fabulously coiffed people sporting awesomely good plastic surgery (the ladies too!). It had unctuous waiters and reasonably good food. And all I could think was, “I’m having dinner at Casa Bonita.”

The study discussed here is “Food neophobia and its relation with olfactory ability in common odour identification,” by M. Luisa Demattè, Isabella Endrizzi, Franco Biasioli, Maria Laura Corollaro, Nicola Pojer, Massimiliano Zampini, Eugenio Aprea, and Flavia Gasperi, published online in Appetite on April 27, 2013.

Grrrrah!

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Mon, 06 May 2013 01:23:00 +0000

On the Berkeley campus last week I caught up with an old Coop pal of mine at the California Alumni Association. Knowing my predilections she gave me promotional item from last year: a “New Stadium Scent” car air freshener with the Cal football home schedule on the reverse side. It’s pretty potent smelling—like a courtesy soap bar from from a lower end motel chain. They could have come to me for better fragrance execution. Still, it’s the thought that counts.

After 87 years atop the Hayward fault, the university embarked on a total rebuild of Memorial Stadium in 2010 while the Golden Bears played at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The new structure retains the original Roman coliseum style exterior but is now seismically up to code along with better training facilities. The 2012 season was the team’s first in the new stadium but it was not a resounding success; they were 3 and 9 overall, 2 and 8 in the Pac 12 conference.

I’ve enjoyed some spectacular Saturday afternoons in Memorial Stadium. If nothing else, the late afternoon view over the rim is worth it: the Bay, the bridges, the fog. Every so often the Bears field a formidable team—in my time the standouts were running back Chuck Muncie (later with the NFL Saints and Chargers), wide receiver Wesley Walker (Jets), and QB Steve Bartkowski (Falcons). More recent graduates include QB Aaron Rogers (Packers), wide receiver DeSean Jackson (Eagles), and running back Marshawn Lynch (Seahawks).

Anyway, all that really counts is beating Stanfurd in the Big Game. (Taking out the trombone player only makes it sweeter.)

Movies & Molecular Biology

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:20:00 +0000

I’ve followed the molecular biology of olfaction ever since Linda Buck and Richard Axel burst upon the scene in 1991 with their discovery of the olfactory receptor genes. Along the way I’ve learned some molecular biology—it’s now about as good as my tourist French—and I like to check in on the field at the AChemS conference.

At this year’s meeting was a poster by Françoise Wilkin and colleagues from ChemCom S.A. in Brussels, Belgium, called “Profiling of OR gene expression in the human olfactory epithelium.” While Buck and Axel identified roughly 1,500 mammalian olfactory receptor (OR) genes, it turns out that many of these are non-functional; the exact proportion varies between species. Humans have about 450 functional receptor genes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that every person actively expresses all 450. Wilkin et al. took olfactory neuroepithelium tissue from eight cadavers and looked for actively expressed receptors. They found 200 of them, or roughly half of the functional OR genome. Of these, 114 were expressed in all eight tissue donors; the rest were expressed in some but not all donors. This variation in expression could account for some of the variability between people in odor perception.

At the Industry Symposium, the theme of which was “Taste And Smell In Translation: Applications From Basic Research,” Joel Mainland from the Monell Chemical Senses Center gave an excellent talk. His topic was “Insights from olfactory receptor screening.” Later, at a reception, we had a chance to talk about why relatively little progress has been made converting olfactory genomics to commercial use (at least when compared to the active work being pursued on taste receptors and novel agonists and antagonists for same). Part of the problem is the sheer number of OR genes one has to deal with. But that can be handled with high throughput screening. What’s really missing is motivation, i.e., specific sensory targets linked to palpable business opportunities. Once the target-plus-application path is clear, the logjam might break.

At the same reception I met Joseph Rucker, Director of R&D at Integral Molecular in Philadelphia. His company develops technologies focused on membrane proteins and thus he is well-informed about OR receptors. (His AChemS talk was “Comprehensive mapping of functional sites for agonists and inhibitors of the bitter taste receptor TAS2R16”). We were talking about ion channels in sensory neurons when Joe reminded me of a 2011 Nature paper by Frank Zufall and others. They investigated loss of function in the SCN9A gene, which encodes a voltage-gated sodium channel. People lacking this gene have a congenital inability to experience pain. Zufall et al. discovered that patients with loss of function mutations in SCN9A are also unable to smell. Mice in which the sodium channel was experimentally deleted from nasal tissue also appeared to be anosmic.

Which brings us to the movies. [About time.—Ed.] [Bite me.] Ronald Niedermann, the giant blond goon in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, was completely insensitive to pain. This led to some spectacular consequences for Lisbeth Salander, among others. Presumably Niedermann was also anosmic. Since I only watched the movies, this leads to an

Exit question: In Larsson’s novels, was the Ronald Niedermann character anosmic and, if so, how did this affect the plot?

American Smellscapes: Finger Pointing in Homer, Alaska

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:57:00 +0000

Springtime has brought an unprecedented off-odor to Homer, Alaska, a town of 5,000 souls located near the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula. Michael Armstrong, a staff writer at the Homer News, does a nice job of conveying the character of the stink.

• Start with a generous dose of wet dog;
• Add a sprinkle of sewage sludge;
• Toss in a dead sea otter;
• Throw in that yucky black stuff at the bottom of an unturned compost heap;
• Marinade in fresh horse manure, and
• Let stand in a sealed 5-gallon bucket.
Open the bucket a week later, take a deep whiff and prepare to gag.

But the fun really starts when he explores possible sources of the stench. Everyone he interviews has a different theory. Among the suspects: a poorly drained lawn at Bishop’s Beach park, pig-poop contaminated dirt from the Matanuska Valley, the Public Works sewage lagoon, the Beluga Slough wetlands, uncollected dog turds, and anaerobic bacteria in the soil. There seems to be plenty of blame to go around.

Back at the Ranch

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:54:00 +0000

I’m back at FirstNerve Manor after three weeks on the road: Ann Arbor, Los Angeles, the SF Bay Area, and Philly. Had intended to blog and tweet more from the AChemS meeting, but time pressures and a stupid phone conspired to prevent it. Sorry about that. C’est la vie.

Current Conditions

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 23:22:00 +0000

75° F. Steady sea breeze. Sunny. Clear. Pale moon. Santa Catalina Island atop a distant fog bank. Palos Verdes in the haze up the coast.

I walk across the beach through three odor plumes: grilling hot dogs, pot, salty sea mist.

Talking Odor Perception on Huff Post Live

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 03:58:00 +0000

I’ve been on the road and am just now getting around to posting a link to this smelly panel discussion hosted on Tuesday by Josh Zepps. It’s me, Stuart Firestein, Bonnie Blodgett, and Sissel Tolaas.

AChemS XXXV

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 06:52:00 +0000

I’m in Huntington Beach, California, for the 35th annual AChemS conference of smell and taste scientists. Missed the last two meetings so glad to be back in my home state reconnecting with colleagues. Hope to blog and tweet the best parts for you to share. This was the view Wednesday afternoon from the Hyatt Regency across the pool, the PCH, and the beach, with the Pacific on the horizon.

Society for Neuroscience President: “Shut Up,” He Explained

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:26:00 +0000

With over 42,000 members the Society for Neuroscience is the largest scientific association in the field. Its president, Larry Swanson, sent an email to members today discussing President Obama’s brain research initiative. It is a remarkable document. I reprint it in full below (emphases mine).

Swanson makes two points: SfN members should support the plan because money, and they should keep any misgivings about it to themselves because money.

This disgraceful note is what passes for science advocacy today.

Dear fellow Society for Neuroscience members,

Following a week of extraordinary attention to the field of neuroscience and support for biomedical research, I write to share the SfN Executive Committee’s view about President Obama’s announcement of a U.S. brain research initiative and why we believe it is important for the neuroscience community to both embrace and help shape it through scientific dialogue. I had the privilege of attending the President’s announcement at the White House, and, after listening to his words, I am excited and confident that this and other emerging global funding initiatives can be tremendously positive for our field.

The announcement comes at a critical time in neuroscience. Unparalleled scientific progress and possibility co-exist alongside growing challenges caused by shrinking or flat national government budgets for science research. Precisely because of these realities, the Executive Committee believes the President’s announcement represents a critical moment to both pursue scientific opportunities and make the case that now is the time to increase science investment. Last Tuesday’s White House announcement prioritized an initial investment in pilot tools and technologies. We think this is a reasonable place to start as it acknowledges the long horizons and deep challenges inherent in studying the brain, as well as the advantages of developing revolutionary new methods for discovery. The project also has established a rigorous process for determining investments and future planning, with an exemplary NIH Advisory Committee comprised of distinguished scientists from across our field with a strong emphasis on basic science.

While we should all continue to explore and discuss questions about the scientific direction, it is important that our community be perceived as positive about the incredible opportunity represented in the President’s announcement. If we are perceived as unreasonably negative or critical about initial details, we risk smothering the initiative before it gets started.

At the same time, SfN knows that scientists will be challenged to make progress on even these initial projects — let alone pursue the field’s ongoing vital work — without sustained and growing financial investment in the scientific enterprise. The President articulated the outlines of a possible long-term vision for focusing on brain research, with an emphasis on basic science, and NIH Director Francis Collins has consistently emphasized that the initiative likely requires a project spanning a decade or more and strong NIH-wide funding. His comparisons of the project to the Human Genome Project, while not a perfect scientific analogy, suggests to the public a long-term commitment. To help realize these possibilities, SfN will continue advocating strongly for sustained investments to support neuroscience and the biomedical research enterprise overall, and we will need all of your voices in those efforts for years to come.

SfN encourages healthy debate and rigorous dialogue about the effort’s scientific directions. Testing of assumptions, methodological debate, and constructive competition are central to scientific progress. I urge you to bring all this to the table through our scientific communications channels and venues, including the SfN annual meeting in San Diego this fall and The Journal of Neuroscience.

Thanks to your extraordinary scientific achievements, the neuroscience field is capturing the world’s attention, and, here in the United States, rallying a nation to support more focus on scientific discovery. Thank you for your commitment to advancing science and improving health. I look forward to participating with all of you in this ongoing discussion as the initiative takes shape.

Sincerely,
Larry Swanson
SfN President

This message shows that Swanson is clearly in damage control mode. Obama's BRAIN proposal has been criticized by many scientists and Swanson wants to suppress open dissent so as not to jeopardize SfN's rent seeking activities.

Exit question: Can you find the part where Swanson describes the actual neuroscience that $100 million in tax money will buy?

Bonus question: What is the scientific term for “trust us”? (Answer: “an exemplary NIH Advisory Committee comprised of distinguished scientists.”)

Bonus question 2: What is the scientific term for “don’t air your disagreement in public”? (Answer: “bring all this to the table through our scientific communications channels and venues.”)

Green on Green: People vs Pelicans

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:55:00 +0000

Here at FirstNerve we enjoy watching the contradictions emerge when one form of political correctitude collides with another: wind turbines vs eagles, save-the-whales vs preserving Native American culture, municipal composting vs clean air, etc.

The contradictions in La Jolla, California, are ripe and getting riper as the thick layer of pelican poop and cormorant crap on the town’s seaside rocks grows deeper and smellier by the day. A new AP story updates what we wrote about last year—the protected status of the scenic cove makes guano abatement nearly impossible, yet the unbearable stench is bad for business, tourism, and quality of life in general.

A waiter at a beachside cafe is quoted as saying resignedly, “Poop is a part of nature.” True that. But as the San Diego Union-Tribune pointed out, it is California’s excessive regulatory culture that “effectively sanctifies animal waste.”

California’s love affair with regulatory environmentalism could cause cognitive dissonance headaches. More regulation of CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) because the stench of manure from thousands of closely packed animals is an environmental issue? Yes! Take steps to reduce the stench of guano from thousands of closely packed birds because it’s an environmental issue? Yes! Er, no! Uh . . . let me get back to you on that.

Pass the popcorn.

Obama’s Incoherent BRAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:30:00 +0000

We have a good understanding of the sense of smell at the biological periphery. We know how odor receptors work and how the sensory information they convey is organized in the nose and olfactory bulb. Beyond that, however, things get murky. We know the higher brain areas of olfaction only in broad brush strokes. We have barely an inkling how odor intensity and pleasantness are modulated by brain areas dealing with memory and emotion. Wouldn’t it be great to have it all mapped out, from the physical molecule of trimethylamine to the behavioral yuck response?

That is the allure of President Obama’s $100 million brain research initiative. But it isn’t easy to get a handle on what exactly the project consists of.

Susan Young’s piece yesterday on the MIT Technology Review website is subtitled “Obama calls for $100 million to develop new technologies to understand the brain.” She makes it sound like a technology development initiative.

But today’s WSJ op-ed by Paul Allen and Francis Collins calls it “a federally coordinated effort to unlock the secrets of the brain,” to “gain powerful insights into neurological diseases and mental-health disorders.” That sounds like basic research, not technology development. So which is it?

Allen and Collins note that neuroscientists have a host of research techniques at their disposal. They observe that we can study small, isolated neural circuits but we don’t yet understand how the brain works as a whole. To understand “this piece of highly excitable matter” we need a massively scaled up effort, broadened to include “a range of disciplines, from physics and biology to nanoscience, computer science and engineering.” Or, as Allen and Collins say, “All hands must be on deck.”

But here’s what Young sees: “The BRAIN initiative proposes to develop new technologies that can record the activity from thousands, if not millions or billions, of neurons simultaneously at timescales matching behavior and mental activities.” Among the new technologies she lists are nanochips, nano particles, nanoprobes with wireless data transfer, novel optical techniques, voltage-sensitive fluorescent molecules, synthetic biology, improved calcium-imaging methods and enzymes that build ion concentration-sensitive errors into DNA.

So would new techniques get us closer to the Big Picture in odor perception? Perhaps. But it’s not as if we’re hurting for technology. Among the techniques used to study smell are calcium imaging, single cell recording, patch clamp recording, cell ensemble recording, fluorescent imaging of gene expression, optical tracing of trans-synaptic connections, autoradiography, fMRI, EEG, recording of chemosensory evoked potentials, magnetoencephalography, transgenic expression of receptors (a.k.a. “synthetic biology”), genomics, and computer modeling of receptor activation. There is no one path to understanding the Secret of Odor Perception—it is being attacked with a diverse arsenal of technology by a lot of really smart people focused obsessively on smell.

The BRAIN project, in contrast, sounds like a plan invented by the Underpants Gnomes: (1) create technology, (2) ?, (3) unlock the secrets of the brain. Like the Underpants Gnomes, BRAIN fans are adamant about wanting one thing: more. More technology, more researchers, more money. More underpants.

To be fair, Allen and Collins say “progress will also hinge on the cooperation of the public and private sectors, a welcome aspect of the president’s “BRAIN” initiative. We’ll need creative, nimble management to ensure the best work out of both sides.” It’s a bit ironic to hear Francis Collins call for nimble management. He led the federal government’s enormous Human Genome Project which, you’ll remember, was nearly beaten to its goal by Celera Genomics, J. Craig Venter’s private company which started later but moved faster.

Weekend Update: Perfumania/Parlux Hires Legit Exec, Jay-Z Gets Richer

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:48:00 +0000

Donald J. Loftus

According to a press release on Friday, Donald J. Loftus has been hired as president of Parlux Ltd. and executive vice president of Perfumania Inc. Parlux, of course, produces high-profile celebrity scents by Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Rihanna and a slew of others.

Loftus brings a wealth of experience to the company and is one of the most respected executives in the beauty industry. Most recently, Loftus was the North American President and CEO of P&G Prestige, a position he held for over ten years. Prior to P&G Prestige, he held positions at Cosmopolitan Cosmetics, Escada Beaute, YSL Beauté and also served as Divisional VP at May Department stores. Loftus is a former Chairman of the Board for The Fragrance Foundation and the current Chairman of Fashion Group International.

Let’s hope the hiring of a credible outsider like Loftus will put an end to such embarrassments as last November’s imbecilic Parlux press release for the new Rihanna fragrance.

Speaking of outsiders and insiders, this is a great time to revisit that tangled knot of cross-holdings, family trusts, and related-party sales that constitute the saga of Perfumania and Parlux Fragrances. The last time we checked in, the former was looking to acquire the latter. That deal closed on April 18, 2012, and Parlux (the perfume manufacturer) is now part of Perfumania Inc. (the perfume retailer).

The upshot, as disclosed in a proxy statement for its January 10, 2013 annual shareholders meeting, is that Glenn Nussdorf, Stephen Nussdorf and their sister, Arlene Nussdorf collectively are the beneficial owners of approximately 55% of Perfumania Holdings Inc. The astonishingly unGoogle-able Rene Garcia and certain family trusts and affiliated companies of Rene Garcia own another 24%. In addition, rap mogul Jay-Z, a.k.a. Shawn C. Carter and S. Carter Enterprises, LLC, (a company he controls), own another 11%.

In other words, 90% of the company’s shares are controlled by five people. [Still feel like buying in?—Ed.] [No thanks.]

Perfumania’s various SEC disclosures are a wonder to behold. Here’s one gem:

Glenn, Stephen and Arlene Nussdorf own GSN Trucking, Inc. which provides general transportation and freight services. The Company periodically utilizes GSN to transport both inbound purchases of merchandise and outbound shipments to wholesale customers.

Here’s another: six estate trusts established by the three Nussdorf siblings hold promissory notes from the company worth $85.4 million, while brothers Glenn and Stephen hold another note worth $5 million (it is currently in default, which triggers a higher interest rate). These loans can only be repayed after the company pays off a $225 million line of revolving credit. [Sure you don’t want to invest?—Ed.] [Yes, really sure.]

Capitalist Jay-Z Visiting Communist Hell-hole

Finally, let’s review how Jay-Z got his 11% stake in Perfumania. Two years ago he, along with the cryptic Rene Garcia, created Artistic Brands Development LLC. ABD obtained rights to license fragrances from Rihanna, Kanye West, and Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter himself. ABD then sublicensed the rights to Parlux, in return for warrants to 8 million shares of Parlux. Easy peasy.

A year later, with its acquisition of Parlux on the horizon, Perfumania agreed to give ABD 300,000 Perfumania shares “as consideration for certain licensing transactions contemplated” as part of the merger. Those shares went to ABD’s designee Shawn Cater when the deal closed on April 18, 2012. Easier peasy.

On that same day another deal kicked in: Perfumania issued warrants for 1,599,999 shares to ABD at an $8 strike price. It turns out that ABD owed unpaid guaranteed minimum royalties to its licensees (among them presumably Shawn Carter). As part of this new deal, Perfumania obtained the sublicense rights (that used to belong to Parlux), in return for assuming ABD’s outstanding royalty obligations. (Cash for Jay-Z. Sweet!) Plus ABD and the opaque Garcia Group received warrants for 3,199,972 shares of Perfumania. (More shares for Jay-Z. Sweeter!)

At Friday’s closing price of $5.35 a share, Jay-Z’s 1,919,784 shares of Perfumania are worth $10,270,844.

I couldn’t name a single tune of his, but I admire his talent.

Human Pheromones: Abandoned by the Wayside

noreply@blogger.com (Avery Gilbert) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:42:00 +0000

The great intellectual wagon train of behavioral science rolls on, leaving behind heaps of junk that the scientific pioneers no longer find useful. Miles back there’s a big pile of specialized “instincts” for this and “drives” for that. Further up, the trail is strewn with Skinner boxes and the shabby wreckage of behaviorism. In the near distance are items more recently jettisoned: the excess baggage of mammalian pheromones.

Georgia State researcher Aras Petrulis is the latest to toss the pheromone concept to the side of the road. In a review article to appear soon in the journal Hormones and Behavior, he examines “chemosignals, hormones and mammalian reproduction.” His conclusions echo those of Richard Doty.

Petrulis doesn’t deny the importance of smell. In his view, “it is clear that social odors play a substantial and oftentimes obligatory role in mammalian reproduction.” However, he believes that the actions of these social odors rarely meet the definition of a pheromone. Why?

The role of learning and memory in the behavioral and physiological responses to opposite-sex conspecifics is generally under-appreciated by the non-specialist. [Don’t be offended, FN readers! Dr. Petrulis’s condescension is directed toward other PhDs—those outside his narrow discipline.] Many of the reproductive effects reviewed above are clearly subject to learning in adulthood as evidenced by their dependency on sexual experience or prior contact with chemosignals as well as by their ability to be conditioned to previously neutral odors.

This dependence on learning and context undercuts the most fundamental idea of a pheromone; that is, that responses to it are “instinctual” and therefore not learned. Similarly, the fact that most chemosignals altering mammalian behavior and/or physiology are complex mixtures often lacking species-specificity, rather than being potent and essential singular compounds, further erodes the utility of the term “pheromone”. Because of these concerns, it is perhaps wise to restrict the term to molecules that have met each and every criterion of a pheromone, as used in the classical ethological sense.[Emphasis mine.]

And if we restrict the term as he so gingerly suggests, where does that leave us with respect to human pheromones?

Lastly, it should be clear that chemosignals are neither necessary nor sufficient for human reproduction nor do they have a privileged place in directing human social behavior. Positive findings of human chemical communication, when not based on flawed analysis . . . are often inconsistent, and at best, demonstrate modest effects on human behavior and physiology.

So take it from a guy who studies sex behavior for living: drop the human pheromones and lighten your load.

The study discussed here is “Chemosignals, hormones and mammalian reproduction,” by Aras Petrulis, published online in Hormones and Behavior, March 29, 2013.