Women Smell Better Than Men

　　A woman friend of mine recently commented about her guy: “He’s such a boy. His towels are stinky. And he doesn’t seem to notice!” Well, maybe he can’t smell the stinkiness. According to recent research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, women have much sharper noses.
　　Scientists collected microdroplets of perspiration, and had men and women sniff the vials. According to both, the odors were equally rich. Subjects were then asked to rate odor strength when sniffing the sweat mixed one by one with 32 different fragrances. Only two of the fragrances stopped women from smelling the sweat. But 19 fragrances successfully blocked it from male noses.
　　Body odor is special—the authors note that in previous studies men’s and women’s scent detection did not differ when it came to other aromas. The researchers also concluded that men’s odor is harder to mask than women’s, regardless of who sniffs. Only a fifth of the fragrances could cover up male odor. But half of the scents masked female odor. The researchers suggest that for women there may be important biological information contained in male sweat. So maybe don’t wash those towels just yet.

　　女人比男人嗅觉更灵敏

　　我的一个女性朋友最近对他的男朋友有些抱怨：“他居然是这样的一个家伙，他的毛巾都发臭了，他竟然都没注意到。”不过，也许是他的男朋友真的不能闻出这些臭味来。根据莫奈尔化学感觉中心(the Monell Chemical Senses Center)最近的一项研究结果，和男人相比，女人的嗅觉敏锐的多。

　　科学家们用小药瓶收集了一些很小的汗滴，然后分别让男性和女性来嗅这些汗液。这些汗味儿不管对男性还是女性来说都一样的浓烈。科学家们把这些汗液分别与32种不同的香水混合，然后再让这些受试者给出所闻到汗味的强度。仅仅只有两种香水不能让女性闻到这些汗水味儿。但是，有19种香水让男人的鼻子嗅不出这些汗水味儿。

　　体味真是特别---该研究的作者们注意到，对于其它气味来说，以前的研究中发现男性和女性对这些气味的嗅觉能力没有什么区别。研究者们还得出结论：不论是谁闻体味儿，男人的体味比女人的体味能难于被掩盖。仅仅只有五分之一的香水能掩盖男性的气味。但是有一半的香水能掩盖女性的气味。研究者们推测，对于女性来说男性的体味中可能含有一些重要的生物信息。既然是这样，或许还是留着那些发臭的毛巾为好。

　　Vocabulary:

　　Comment: 评论
　　Stinky: 发臭的
　　Microdroplet: 小液滴
　　Perspiration: 汗液
　　Sniff: 嗅
　　Vial: 小药瓶
　　Odor: （尤指难闻的）气味
　　Fragrance: 香味；香水
　　Mask: 掩盖
　　Scent: 气味；气息
　　Detection: 探测