In fact, as we learned in Olfactory Fact #21, an experiment by The Food Network’s popular Food Detectives blindfolded and nose-clipped a four-man panel of tasters, and discovered that the subjects were unable to distinguish between the flavors of peach and mango, coconut and cherry jelly beans, or apple and raw potato.

Here’s a nifty little experiment you can perform for yourself. Just pinch your nose closed while eating a jelly bean. The flavor of the jelly bean is reduced to a simple slightly sweet sensation in the mouth. As soon as you release your nose while still chewing on the jelly bean, you’ll get a sudden rush of flavor, demonstrating how flavorless life would be if we actually depended on taste alone to appreciate the food we enjoy.

Check for exciting Scent Marketing Institute events coming up in your area HERE, or contact the SMI for more information HERE.

121 students at the University of Pittsburgh were asked a series of questions, such as whether they’d ever deliberately smelled or slept with the clothing of another person, or given an unlaundered article of their own clothing to a loved one, for the sole purpose of evoking memories of the wearer in the mind of the sniffer. Not only had the majority of the volunteers–male and female–performed this ritual with the apparel of a romantic partner, many had also comforted themselves by smelling the clothing worn by a child or other close relative.

These results might seem bizarre, in a culture obsessed with masking body odor with deodorants and breath mints, but the study’s lead author, Melanie Shoup, has been familiar with the phenomenon for quite some time. “When I was going through high school and college, I would wear a boyfriend’s shirt to bed when I was separated from him. And when I asked my friends, they said they had done similar things.”

The explanation is aptly tucked into a succinct nutshell by Whiff-Guy C. Russell Brumfield: “When we smell, we feel.” Our sense of smell is the most direct expressway to our brains, leaving all other senses in the dust. When the other senses (sight, sound, taste, touch) reach our receptive centers, they are first routed through the interpretive reasoning centers of the left brain, needing to be identified and assimilated before circuitously making it to the emotional centers which tell us how we feel about the information. But when the olfactory bulb detects a smell—while we are eating, drinking, making love, having an emotional experience, or simply shopping for shoes—it alerts the cerebral cortex and sends a chemical message directly into the limbic system of the right brain, before any left-brain analysis can muddy the waters.

Likewise unsurprised by the results of the study is Philip R. Muskin, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, who points to the close proximity of the olfactory bulb and the limbic system (the part of the brain responsible for processing emotion) in the most ancient region of the brain, and freely admits his standing in that 2/3 ratio of men who seek comfort in the smell of absent loved ones. “I had an aunt who wore very heavy perfume,” he says. “When she passed away, her sister gave us one of her jewelry cases. Whenever you open it, the scent of her perfume just rushes out. And for an instant, it’s like she’s there.”

Lulabie®, a new brand emphasizing the importance of family rituals in daily routines for their children’s emotional balance and well-being, has just launched its first collection, the Lulabie® Aromatherapy Teddy Bears. The fuzzy little critters come in a variety of colors and are scented with a special “sleep well” formula including lavender oil, orange, thyme, and cardamon. A patent-pending scent technology creates a slow and constant release of the fragrance, allowing your little tyke to enjoy months of sweet dreams, and refills are then available so you can refresh the scent without replacing the bear your baby will no doubt have bonded with.

Lulabie®, winner of the prestigious 2009 Jury’s Award for Toy of the Year in Europe, is part of the Scent A Brand group, which develops high quality applications of long-lasting scented products. The Lulabie® bear gift sets retail for $29.95 and are available online at www.walmart.com and www.target.com.

Chapter 9 of Whiff! The Revolution of Scent Communication in the Information Age, Stewardship and Social Responsibility, deals extensively with this important issue.

“Although seemingly just a curiosity, the individual differences in metabolism could be important in other realms,” says Dr. Marcia Levin Pelchat, a sensory psychologist at Monell and lead author of the study.

Results of the study also provide an example of ways in which normal people differ in their metabolism. “This is one of only a few examples to date showing genetic differences among humans in their sense of smell,” says study co-author Dr. Danielle Reed, a Monell behavioral geneticist. “Specifically, we have learned that changes in an olfactory receptor gene can have a large effect on a person’s ability to smell certain sulfurous compounds. Other such compounds include mercaptan, the chemical used to add odor to natural gas so that people are able to detect it.”

Guest-curated by Katharine Harmon, author of The Map as Art, the exhibition includes a wealth of inventive conceptual works such as a 3-D Jell-O map of the Manhattan skyline, an anxiety map of the five boroughs lit by sweat-powered batteries, and Nicola Twilley’s scratch-and-sniff map of the City. “I like wondering whether the world’s most adrenalized and artistic city elicits more emotional responses than others,” says Harmon. “Mapping is an intriguing way to approach the question, especially at a time when artists are using mapping concepts in such ingenious ways.”

The exhibit opens on Friday, September 24 and runs through November 6.