“The effect odor has on a consumer’s experience of the product is still not yet understood.” Prompting investigators at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands to set up two experiments in order to clarify the possible influences of odor on consumer goods. Their research took an unusual approach, centring around what they call ‘incongruent odors’ – perhaps simply described as merchandise with ‘the wrong smell’.
For example, a pair of plastic wellington boots (see photo) was treated with a ‘rose-like’ smell and, along with other incongruously odorised items, were then exposed to test subjects in various carefully controlled ways.

There are several possible causes of keratitis – and a new one has recently been identified and described in the literature – with the publication of  ‘Long Eyebrow Hair as a Possible Cause of Chronic Keratitis of Obscure Etiology’ in the specialist journal Cornea.

If the owner of a tattoo needs surgery, what are the options for avoiding its disruption? A recent research paper from James Cook University Hospital, Wansbeck General Hospital and North Tees Hospital in the UK explains how strategic siting of laparoscopic surgery incisions may be employed to avoid disrupting tattoos – which (at least in the 96 patients who were surveyed) have an average cost in the region of £35 (≈ $70). Most of the general surgeons who were questioned in the review had encountered tattoos at proposed incision sites – and 61% had taken steps to avoid disrupting them. Though, unfortunately, 4% had received a complaint regarding tattoo disruption.

“Little scientific attention has been paid to the complex task of hula hooping.” – explains a recent research paper from the Sensorimotor Neuroscience Laboratory at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

“… the degree to which one smiles in photographs taken in early life predicts the likelihood that a person will be divorced later in life.” say researchers from the Touch and Emotion Lab at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, US, a key center for facial and tactile communication studies. The lab has recently completed two long-term investigations which retrieved and examined early photographs of more than 400 participants – and then correlated the degree to which the subjects  were smiling in the pictures with the incidence of divorce in later life.

“Despite the possibility of mixed feelings of disgust and amusement hardly anything is known about the relationship between these emotions.”