The Nose Knows

Women can smell — subconsciously — when a guy is looking for sex. And, no, not just because she has a nose and there’s a guy around. Turns out, we really do release pheromones. Here’s how one group of scientists proved it:

Chen and her colleagues asked 20 heterosexual guys to stop wearing deodorant and scented products for a few days. Then they told the men to put small pads in their armpits as they watched pornographic videos and became aroused (the researchers confirmed, using electrodes, that the images did the job). Later, the guys were asked to exchange those pads for fresh pads to collect the sweat they produced when they weren’t aroused.

Then the researchers recruited 19 brave women to smell the men’s pads while undergoing brain scans.

Scientists are weird.