When someone is happy, can you smell it?

    You can usually tell when someone is happy based on seeing them smile, hearing them laugh or perhaps from receiving a big hug. But can you also smell their happiness? Surprising new research suggests that happiness does indeed have a scent, and that the experience of happiness can be transmitted through smell, reports Phys.org.

    For the study, 12 young men were shown videos meant to bring about a variety of emotions while researchers gathered sweat samples from them. All of the men were healthy and none of them were drug users or smokers, and all were asked to abstain from drinking or eating smelly foods during the study period. 

    Those sweat samples were then given to 36 equally healthy young women to smell, while researchers monitored their reactions. Only women were selected to smell the samples, apparently because previous research has shown that women have a better sense of smell than men and are also more sensitive to emotional signaling—though it's unclear why only men were chosen to produce the scents.

    Researchers found that the behavior of the women after smelling the scents—particularly their facial expressions—indicated a relationship between the emotional states of the men who produced the sweat and the women who sniffed them. 

    “Human sweat produced when a person is happy brings about a state similar to happiness in somebody who breathes this smell,” said study co-author Gun Semin, a professor at Koc University in Turkey.

    This is a fascinating finding because it not only means that happiness does have a scent, but that the scent is capable of transmitting the emotion to others. The study also found that other emotions, such as fear, seem to carry a scent too. This ensures previous research suggesting that some negative emotions have a smell, but it is the first time this has proved to be true of positive feelings.

    Researchers have yet to isolate(分离) exactly what the chemical compound for the happiness smell is, but you might imagine what the potential applications for such a finding could be. Happiness perfumes, for instance, could be invented. Scent therapies（香味疗法）could also be developed to help people through depression or anxiety.

    Perhaps the most surprising result of the study, however, is our broadened understanding of how emotions get communicated, and also how our own emotions are potentially managed through our social context and the emotional states of those around us. 

    In a time when ivory poaching（偷猎）has gotten so bad that it threatens to wipe out several animal species,a young Dutch designer is creating "egalitarian（平等主义）jewelry" made of our very own ivory—teeth.

    Lucie Majerus got the idea for her "human ivory" collection after having her wisdom teeth removed.She kept them and soon realized they would make great material for a jewelry collection."Why wouldn't we value our own material instead of the precious material from other species?And what if we mine our own ivory and turn it into pearls?"she asks.

    Her own teeth became a ring,but in order to create a whole collection,she needed more material,and since having more of her teeth removed wasn't a very pleasant choice,she asked her dentist to save his patient's unwanted teeth.Most people choose not to keep their pulled teeth,so they are usually donated to dentistry schools.Majerus also received the lost teeth of two of-her teachers at Design Academy Eindhoven,so she had a nice supply of human ivory to experiment with.

    To turn human teeth into attractive pieces of jewelry,Lucie Majerus first bleaches（漂白）them,and then uses a stone polishing machine to shape the teeth into various shapes.

    Majerus displayed her human ivory jewelry collection at this year's Dutch Design Week,and claims that people's reaction was mostly positive."Surprisingly,most people aren't frightened at the sight of the jewelry,but really like the idea,"Majerus told Fast Co Design."Some regret that they didn't keep their tooth at the dentist and some,who will have teeth taken out soon,are now looking forward to it."

    Below is a selection from a popular science book.

    If blood is red, why are veins（静脉）blue?

    Actually, veins are not blue at all. They are more of a clear, yellowish colour. Although blood looks red when it's outside the body, when it's sitting in a vein near the surface of the skin, it's more of a dark reddish purple colour. At the right depth, these blood-filled veins reflect less and light than the surrounding skin, making them look blue by comparison.

    Which works harder, your heart or your brain?

    That kind of depends on whether you are busy thinking or busy exercising. Your heart works up to three times harder during exercise, and shifts enough blood over a lifetime to fill a supertanker. But, in the long run, your brain probably tips it, because even when you're sitting still your brain is using twice as much energy as your heart, and it takes four to five times as much blood to feed it.

    Do old people shrink as they age?

    Yes and no. Many people do get shorter as they age. But, when they do, it isn't because they're shrinking all over. They simply lose height as their spine（脊柱）becomes shorter and more curved due to disuse and the effects of gravity（重力）. Many (but not all) men and women do lose height as they get older. Men lose an average of 3-4 cm in height as they age, while women may lose 5 cm or more. If you live to be 200 years old, would you keep shrinking till you were, like 60 cm tall, like a little boy again? No, because old people don't really shrink! It is not that they are growing backwards – their legs, arms and backbones getting shorter. When they do get shorter, it's because the spine has shortened a little. Or, more often, become more bait and curved.

    Why does spinning make you dizzy（眩晕的）?

    Because your brain gets confused between what you're seeing and what you're feeling. The brain senses that you're spinning using special gravity-and-motion-sensing organs in your inner ear, which work together with your eyes to keep your vision and balance stable. But when you suddenly stop spinning the system goes out of control, and your brain thinks you're moving while you're not!

    Where do feelings and emotions come from?

    Mostly from an ancient part of the brain called the limbic system. All mammals have this brain area – from mice to dogs, cats, and humans. So all mammals feel basic emotions like fear, pain and pleasure. But since human feelings also involve other. Newer bits of the brain, we feel more complex emotions than any other animal on the planet.

    If exercise wears you out, how can it be good for you?

    Because our bodies adapt to everything we do to them. And as far as your body is concerned, it's use it, or lose it”! It's not that exercise makes you healthy; it's more that a lack of exercise leaves your body weak and easily affected by disease.

    A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.

    A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.

    There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two - headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying hi story. I find such people, I must say so peculiar that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girlfriend.

    No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.

    HOLLAND & BARRETT

    Valerian capsules(缬草胶囊)

    A traditional herbal medicinal product used for the temporary relief of symptoms of mild anxiety and to aid sleep. This is based on traditional use only.

    Active Ingredients:

    Each capsule contains 337mg of extract (as dry extract) from Valerian root (Valerian officinalis L) (equivalent to 1683mg-2020mg of Valerian root).

    Dosage（剂量）:

    For oral use only.

    For adults and elderly:

    Mild anxiety — Take 1 capsule 3 times daily.

    To aid sleep — Take 1 capsule 30 minutes to 1 hour before bedtime with an earlier dose during the evening if necessary.

    Swallow the capsule with water. As the effects of this product may not occur immediately, the capsule should be taken continuously for 2-4 weeks.

    The maximum dose is 4 capsules per day.

    Duration of use: If symptoms worsen or do not improve after 4 weeks, a doctor or a qualified healthcare practitioner should be consulted.

    Warnings:

    Do not exceed (超过) the stated dose.

    Do not take this product if you are:

    Under 18 years of age

    Pregnant or breastfeeding

    Allergic to Valerian or any of the excipients (辅药)in this product

    Already taking a medicine for sleep or anxiety

    Storage: Store the capsules below 25℃.

    Keep the bottle tightly closed.

    Keep out of sight and reach of children.

    Registration Holder:  NBTY Europe Limited, Samuel Ryder House, Barling Way, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 7RH, United Kingdom

If you want to convince the boss you deserve a pay rise or promotion, the solution could be simple — eat the same food as they do. Psychologists have discovered managers are much more likely to instantly trust us if we choose the same dishes as them.

    During experiments, discussions over wages and work conditions were much more successful if both sides chose to snack on the same treats. And shoppers were much more likely to buy a product advertised on TV by someone eating a similar food to them at the time.

The reason is thought to be the so–called similarity attraction theory — where people tend to like others who have similar tastes or habits to themselves. But this is believed to be one of the first studies highlighting the role of food in this relationship. Researchers at Chicago University in the US conducted a series of experiments to examine food's role in earning trust.

In a test, participants were told to watch TV — where someone pretending to be a member of the public praised a certain product. The volunteers were given Kit Kat bars to nibble, while the TV people ate either a Kit Kat or grapes as they talked.

    The results showed viewers were much more likely to express an interest in buying the product if the TV showed the other person eating a Kit Kat too. The researchers added, "Although similarity in food consumption is not a sign of whether two people will get along, we find consumers treat this as such. They feel more trusting of those who consume as they do. It means people can immediately begin to feel friendship and develop a bond, leading to smoother transactions from the start."

    Harley Street psychologist Dr. Lucy Atcheson said it was already known that wearing similar clothes could instantly create trust. But this was the first report that food had the same effect. She said, "This is really interesting. It makes sense as people feel they have common ground and can trust the other person. That means negotiations are more likely to be successful."