Women Pick Up Body Odour Better
Women may be better at sniffing out biologically relevant information from underarm sweat, a US study suggests.
Researchers found it was difficult to mask underarm odour when a woman was doing the smelling, but quite easy to do so when it was a man.
They speculate that a womans highly attuned smell radar might help her select a mate.
The study, by Philadelphias Monell Center, appears in Flavour and Fragrance Journal.
In the study, women and men rated the strength of underarm odours, both alone and in conjunction with various fragrances.
The fragrances were selected to test their ability to block underarm odour through a method known as olfactory cross-adaptation.
This occurs when the nose adapts to one odour, and then also becomes less sensitive to a second odour.
Sniffed alone, the underarm odours smelled equally strong to men and women.
But when fragrance was introduced, only two of 32 scents successfully blocked underarm odour when women were doing the smelling.
In contrast，19 fragrances significantly reduced the strength of underarm odour for men.
Lead researcher Dr Charles Wysocki, a behavioural neuroscientist, said: Taken together, our studies indicate that human sweat conveys information that is of particular importance to females.
Not only were women better smellers than men, but male odours were harder to block than female odours.
Underarm odours from the two sexes did not differ in how strong they smelled. However 19% of the fragrances successfully reduced the strength of male underarm odour, compared to over 50% for the female equivalent.
Dr Leslie Knapp, an expert in biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge, said there were good evolutionary reasons why a womans ability to detect body odours should be more acute could literally be an effective way to sniff out a suitable mate.
She said: Women perhaps need to be more discriminating when they choose who to mate with to produce offspring, as they invest more than males in the reproductive process.
Men dont need to be so choosy，they have lots of sperm, and can reproduce with lots of females, but once a woman reproduces with a partner she is tied up for nine months.
Dr Knapp said there was evidence that odour gave a hint about genetic make-up. She highlighted HLA genes involved in the immune response.
She said in evolutionary terms it was desirable for a women to mate with a man whose genes were different from hers, as this was likely to produce more robust offspring.
女性可更好地识别体味
美国一项研究显示，女性通过腋下气味识别生物性相关信息的能力很可能更强。
研究人员发现，用其他气味来蒙蔽女性对腋下气味的识别是比较困难的。相比之下，男性则更好蒙骗。
研究人员由此猜测，女性敏锐的嗅觉可能有助于她们选择适合自己的伴侣。
由费城蒙尼奥研究中心组织的这项研究成果已经在《香料与香味杂志》上发表。
参与试验的女性和男性分别用鼻子去闻两组腋下气味，一组是独立的腋下气味，另一组是腋下气味与其他多种香味混合而成的气味。
研究人员利用嗅觉交到主应的方法来测试他们辨别腋下气味的能力。
采用这种测试方法是因为一旦鼻子对第一种气味适应之后，它对第二种气味的判断灵敏度就减弱了。
当男女在闻独立腋下气味的时候，男女的辨别能力旗鼓相当。
但是当腋下气味中混合了其他香味的时候，32种气味中只有两种腋下混合气味让女性无法成功识别。
与之相比，19种腋下提合气味成功蒙骗了男性的鼻子。
研究小组的首席研究员、行为神经科学家查尔斯·维索斯基博士表示，综合实验结果，人类汗腺分泌的气味所传达的信息对于女性尤为重要。
不仅女性的嗅觉比男性敏锐，而且男性的体味比女性的更难隔离。
男女腋下体昧的强度其实并无差异。但是，男性香水能有效地减弱男性腋下19%的气味，而女性香水则能掩盖超过50%的体味。
剑桥大学生物人类学专家莱斯利-纳普博士表示，女性辨别体昧的能力之所以更强是因为进化的原因，因为这样女性就可以更有效地闻出适合自己的伴侣。
她说:女性可能在选择与之生育后代的伴侣时需要更有效地识别能力，所以她们在繁衍过程中具备了优于男性的某种能力。
男性不需要如此的谨慎，他们有许许多多的精子，他们可以和许多女性生育后代。而一旦女性怀孕，她们需要经历9个月的忍耐。
纳普博士说，有证据表明，体味同时也会发出一个人基因组成的信号。她强调，人类白细胞抗原基因就与免疫功能相关。
她表示，从进化的角度来说，女性若能和与自己基因组合不同的男性结合是很好的选择，因为那样他们的下一代很可能更健康。
句型讲解：
1. Researchers found it was difficult to mask underarm odour when a woman was doing the smelling, but quite easy to do so when it was a man.
本句是一个复合句。 found后面是省略了引导词的宾语从句，作found的宾语。其中it是形式主语，真正的主语是后面的不定式短语to mask underarm odour。后面两个when分别引导两个时间状语从句。
语法重点：宾语从句，时间状语从句
2. Dr Leslie Knapp, an expert in biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge, said there were good evolutionary reasons why a womans ability to detect body odours should be more acute could literally be an effective way to sniff out a suitable mate.
本句是一个复合句。 an expert...Cambridge是Dr Leslie Knapp的同位语。 Said后面是省略了引导词的宾语从句，充当said的宾语。其中why引导限制性定语从句，修饰reasongs。 as引导原因状语从句
语法重点：同位语，宾语从句，定语从句，原因状语从句
3. She said in evolutionary terms it was desirable for a women to mate with a man whose genes were different from hers, as this was likely to produce more robust offspring.
本句是一个复合句，said后面是省略了引导词的宾语从句，充当said的宾语。其中it是形式主语，真正的主语是后面的不定式短语to mate with a man. whose引导定语从句，修饰man. as引导原因状语从句。
语法重点：宾语从句，形式主语，定语从句，原因状语从句
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