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AP BIOLOGY NAME Logan Lombana

Asparagus Odor date 1/3/11 Period: 2

Introduction: Genetics influence whether you smell a distinctive odor in your urine after eating asparagus.

Podcast: http://audio.scienceupdate.com/101027_sciup_aspa.mp3

Transcript:

Explaining asparagus pee. I'm Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. 

Many people, but not all, smell a distinct odor in their urine after eating asparagus. Now, researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia are finding out why. Marcia Pelchat and her colleagues found that some people don't produce the smelly asparagus by-product, while others can't smell it. The latter was linked to a variation in their olfactory genes.

Pelchat says this insensitivity to one particular odor is called a "specific anosmia." Pelchat: 
And the suspicion is that everyone has a few of them. So that everyone has his or her own sensory world. 



She also notes that the asparagus odor is a sulfur compound, similar to the rotten-egg-like odor added to natural gas so we can detect it. And it's worth finding out if people who can't smell asparagus pee also might be less likely to notice a gas leak. I'm Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Making Sense of the Research

This may seem like a weird little study, and in some ways, it is. But it also relates to larger issues about the way we perceive the world. Chances are there's a kind of food you like that at least one friend finds disgusting, and vice versa. The same goes for smells. And while many factors undoubtedly affect our personal tastes, scientists are learning that things simply smell and taste different to different people.

Take cilantro, for example: an herb that turns up often in Mexican, Vietnamese, and Thai food, among others. To some people, it's delicious; to others it tastes like soap, or worse. There's no definitive answer as to why—it hasn't been formally researched—but informal observations suggest that some people may be...