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. 

    The iPhone, the iPad: each of Apple's products sounds cool and has become a fad(一时的风尚). Apple has cleverly taken advantage of the power of the letter “i” --and many other brands are following suit. The BBC's iPlayer--which allows Web users to watch TV programs on the Internet--used the title in 2008. A lovely bear--popular in the US and UK--that plays music and video is called “iTeddy”. A slimmed-down version(简装本) of London's Independent newspaper was started last week under the name “i”.

    In general, single-letter prefixes(前缀) have been popular since the 1990s, when terms such as e-mail and e-commerce(电子商务) first came into use.

    Most “I” products are targeted at(针对) young people and considering the major readers of Independent's “I”, it's no surprise that they've selected this fashionable name.

    But it's hard to see what's so special about the letter “i”. Why not use “a”, “b”, or “c” instead? According to Tony Thorne, head of the Language Center at King's College, London, “i” works because its meaning has become ambiguous. When Apple uses “i”, no one knows whether it means Internet, information, individual or interactive, Thorne told BBC Magazines. “Even when Apple created the iPod, it seems it didn't have one clear definition(定义),” he says.

    “However, thanks to Apple, the term is now connected with portability (轻便).” adds Thorne.

    Clearly the letter “i” also agrees with the idea that the Western World is centered on the individual. Each person believes they have their own needs, and we love personalized products for this reason.

    Along with “Google” and “blog”, readers of BBC Magazines voted “I” as one of the top 20 words that have come to define the last decade(十年).

    But as history shows, people grow tired of fads. From the 1900s to 1990s, products with “2000” in their names became fashionable as the year was connected with all things advanced and modern. However, as we entered the new century, the fashion disappeared.

    The United States is full of cars. There are still many families without cars, but some families have two or more. However, cars are used for more than pleasure. They are a necessary part of life.

    Cars are used for business. They are driven to offices and factories by workers who have no other way to get to their jobs. When salesmen are sent to different parts of the city, they have to drive in order to carry their products. Farmers have to drive into the city in order to get supplies.

    Sometimes small children must be driven to school. In some cities school buses are used only when children live more than a mile away from the school. When the children are too young to walk too far, their mothers take turns driving them to school. One mother drives on Mondays taking her own children and the neighbors' as well. Another mother drives on Tuesdays, another on Wednesday, and so on. This is called forming a car pool. Men also form car pools, with three or four men taking turns driving to the place where they all work.

    More car pools should be formed in order to put fewer cars on the road and use less gas. Too many cars are being driven. Something will have to be done about the use of cars.

    Grandparents Answer a Call

    As a third-generation native of Brownsville, Texas, Mildred Garza never planned to move away. Even when her daughter and son asked her to move to San Antonio to help with their children, she politely refused. Only after a year of friendly discussion did Ms. Garza finally say yes. That was four years ago. Today all three generations regard the move as a success, giving them a closer relationship than they would have had in separate cities.

    No statistics show the number of grandparents like Garza who are moving closer to adult children and grandchildren. Yet there is evidence (证据) suggesting that the trend (趋势) is growing. Even President Obama's mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, has agreed to leave Chicago and move into the White House to help care for her granddaughters. According to a study by grandparents.com, 83 percent of the people said Mrs. Robinson's decision will influence grandparents in the American family. Two-thirds believe more families will follow the example of Obama's family.

    “In the 1960s we were all a little wild and couldn't get away from home far enough or fast enough to prove we could do it on our own,” says Christine Crosby, publisher of Grand, a magazine for grandparents. “We now realize how important family is and how important it is to be near them, especially when you're raising children.”

    Moving is not for everyone. Almost every grandparent wants to be with his or her grandchildren and is willing to make sacrifices (牺牲), but sometimes it is wiser to say no and visit frequently instead. Having your grandchildren far away is hard, especially knowing your adult child is struggling, but giving up the life you know may be harder.

    In Kansas City, Missouri, a computer helps firefighters. The computer, which works very fast, has information about all the 350, 000 street addresses in the city. Within two or three seconds after a call is received, the computer provides necessary information for the firefighters. The information is then sent to them by radio from the computer centre in the City Hall. The exact place of the burning building and its size, type and any other details are clear to them.

    The Kansas City computer system also has a medical record of each of the city's 900 firefighters. This kind of information is especially useful when a firefighter is injured. With the information, doctors at hospital can treat the injured firefighters more quickly and easily.

    The firefighters themselves greatly appreciate the computer's help. They know about possible danger ahead of them and can prepare for it. Many times the computer information helps to save lives and property (财产). Sometimes the lives are those of firefighters themselves.

    Mike Horan, a firefighter captain, says, "I feel as if the computer is ready to help me if I get hurt."

    Artificial intelligence can predict when patients with a heart disorder will die, according to scientists.

    The software learned to analyze blood tests and scans of beating hearts to spot signs that the organ was about to fail. The team, from the UK's Medical Research Council, said the technology could save lives by finding patients that need more aggressive treatment. The results were published in the Journal of Radiology.

    According to the researchers, high blood pressure in the lungs damages part of the heart, and about a third of patients die within five years after being diagnosed. There are treatments: drugs, injections straight into the blood vessels, a lung transplant. But doctors need to have an idea of how long patients might have left, in order to pick the right treatment.

    The software was given scans of 256 patients' hearts, and blood test results. When this data was combined with eight years of patient health records, the artificial intelligence predicted when patients would die.

    The software could look about five years into the future. It correctly predicted those who would still be alive after one year about 80% of the time. The figure for doctors is 60%.

    The team now want to test the software works in other patients in different hospitals before assessing whether it should be made widely available to doctors. The researchers also want to use the technology in other forms of heart failure, such as cardiomyopathy, to see who might need a pacemaker or other forms of treatment.

    Dr Mike Knapton, from the British Heart Foundation, said, "This exciting use of computer software in medical practice will help doctors in the future to make sure that patients are receiving the correct treatment before the condition deteriorates and leaves them needing a lung transplant. The next step is to test this technology in more hospitals with heart disease."