Ink pink you stink

I've always known that scientiusts study weird and wonderful things - and in true form lovely story today about a research study from the USA which looked to answer the question "Do old people pong?"

The study tells us that we can identify another person's age group and gender on smell alone.

The scientists gathered got volunteers from three age groups; 20 to 30 years, 45 to 55 years, and 75 to 95 years. (so that's the adult children in our family; Tony and I with the grandmothers in the older group) These volunteers all slept in t-shirts with pads located under their armpits. After five nights the armpit pads were removed and placed in jars. And I'm already screwing up my nose with a 5 night sweaty T-shirt smell.

Once in the jars the volunteers were given a whiff of each jar and asked to identify age and gender - and could.

Researcher said that the oldest age group had a discernible smell but that middle age men had a "stronger and more unpleasant odour" He then went on to say that this test didn't cover other odours such as breath or hair so there is further work to be done.

And I'm still puzzling over the recruitment of volunteers for smelly tasks

I am off to Auckland for 6 days so while I will be topping up the blog from i-Pad we will be reliant on others for the graphics.