Abstract
On the nose: genetic and evolutionary aspects of smell.
Highlights
Among my Christmas presents this year was some perfume – Acqua di Parma, in a beautiful cylindrical buttercup-yellow box
We wash ourselves with soaps and shampoos, anoint our sweatiest bits with deodorants and antiperspirants, and spray on expensive cocktails of scented chemicals and natural extracts
The major observation, seems real and evolutionarily interesting: in general, East Asians are less smelly than everyone else. This is connected to the number of apocrine glands in the axillary organ; while Europeans and Africans have glands packed so closely that they resemble a sponge, in Koreans they are either spread thinly or absent altogether [2]
Summary
Among my Christmas presents this year was some perfume – Acqua di Parma, in a beautiful cylindrical buttercup-yellow box. When our ancestors lost their body hair, they retained the associated sebaceous glands designed to anoint each hair with water-repellent secretions. The apocrine glands are confined to the hairy parts of the body, including the genital area and armpits (axillae).
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