Romance: Pheromones.What do penguins have to do with your love life? Scientists' biggest clue yet: airborne chemical signals called pheromones pheromones, any of a variety of substances, secreted by many animal species, that alter the behavior of individuals of the same species. Sex attractant pheromones, secreted by a male or female to attract the opposite sex, are widespread among insects. , which help these chicks recognize their dads among thousands of other icebound ice·bound adj. Locked in or covered over by ice. Adj. 1. icebound - locked in by ice; "icebound harbors" frozen - turned into ice; affected by freezing or by long and severe cold; "the frozen North"; "frozen pipes"; penguins. As University of Toronto Research at the University of Toronto has been responsible for the world's first electronic heart pacemaker, artificial larynx, single-lung transplant, nerve transplant, artificial pancreas, chemical laser, G-suit, the first practical electron microscope, the first cloning of T-cells, biologist Darryl Gwynne defines it: "Pheromones are chemicals that other members of the same species detect and respond to." The odorless chemicals drift through air until they're sniffed into an animal's nose where the vomeronasal organ (VNO VNO vomeronasal organ. ), a supersensitive organ wired directly to the midbrain midbrain: see brain. , registers the chemicals. "In the brain, pheromones trigger instinctive animal behavior and influence the endocrine [hormone-producing] glands," says Milos Novotny, director of the Institute for Pheromone Research at Indiana University. Scientists haven't figured out how pheromones work, but they've observed that chemicals make mating sparks fly in animals. Could they be the secret to human romance as well? Novotny says women do produce pheromones in their armpits, but it hasn't been proven the chemicals attract males. So if chemistry isn't the key to romance, what is? For now, it's still a mystery ... |
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