Eau de Sweat

A pheromonal find

You ve tried them all. Brut, English Leather ... Old Spice. And somehow the women still turn up their noses. But don't despair. Help is on the way.

Last week a British research team at the University of Warwick announced that it has isolated a steroid in the sweat of males. Highly purified, the substance smells like sandalwood oil, which is used as an ingredient in perfumes. But that is not half its charm. The researchers claim that the steroid is a pheromone, one of a group of chemicals with scents that influence behavior in many species of the animal world. Even better, it is apparently a male sex pheromone, which has a scent that attracts females. Equivalent pheromones exuded by some female insects, for example, draw males from miles around. The Warwick team does not claim such great powers for its discovery; pheromones seem to have less effect on humans than on lower animals, and one scientist notes, "What it creates between people, even strangers, is more in the nature of an immediate empathy." Still, rumor has it that perfume manufacturers are converging on Warwick in the hope of bottling the precious essence as aftershave lotion that women cannot resist.

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