Frosty Friday Five

A sprinkling of the stuff on my mind this morning:

1. I caught up on my workout blogging - Sweat Report. At the gym today I heard an old favorite by Van Morrison. Gotta love Van Morrison!

Wild Nights - Van Morrison

When I headed out to the gym this morning the windchill was -27F. Now that is COLD.

2. Researchers studying how hormones influence behavior reported this week that women with higher levels not only feel prettier, but they appear more attractive to others. Earlier this week, U.S. and British researchers showed that male financial traders whose finger lengths indicate high testosterone levels in the womb made more money.

3. I always wonder who is it who wants to be hired to be a sniffer for sweat studies? This week a report was released about a pheromone study done by Rice University psychologist Denise Chen and her colleagues. 20 heterosexual males were asked to stop wearing deodorant and scented products for a few days. Cotton pads were placed in their armpits and they watched some arousing fare. Those sweaty pads were removed and new pads were put in place to be worn while the men weren't stimulated. 19 courageous women were recruited to sniff the pads while simultaneously undergoing brain scans. According to the study, "Sure enough, the women's brains responded very differently depending on which sweat they sniffed. (And no, none of them passed out.) The sexual sweat, but not the normal sweat, activated the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right fusiform cortex, brain areas that help us recognize emotions and perceive things, respectively."

Basically, the gist of it is that you can probably smell someone is interested/in the mood whether it is something he wants to divulge or not.

Interesting factoid: A quarter of all people with smell disorders find that their sex drive disappears. To me that says that not all people with smell disorders have their pheromone receptor damaged. Definitely an fascinating science to explore.

I wonder how much sweat sniffers get paid? It's a pretty stinky job!

4. According to the Associated Press, booze sales are not recession proof. As the economy has slumped, so have beer sales.

5. I am reading a wonderful book: "A Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor, PHd. At age 37 this neuroanatomitist had a hemorrhage in her left brain. Being a brain scientist, she knew what was happening to her and was amazingly able to keep it together to get help. Within just a few hours she could no longer walk, talk, read or write. The book chronicles what it was like over the next 8 years - and what incredible lessons she learned. Turns out the Oprah did a piece about her and you can view it here.