I've been away, spending most of my time filling my skull with genetics rather than novel fragrances. (Speaking of which: If anyone has a good sagittal view of a mouse's skull where I can see how the olfactory system integrates I would be grateful like the Dead.)

I have sniffed a few cool new (to me) things:

Guerlain Eau de Lit:
Guerlainade citrus
turns to chamomile and hay.
600 count sheets.

Jules by Dior:
Strong and well rounded.
Propper dry woods and pepper.
A mensch for ladies.

Derby by Guerlain:
Guerlinade's winter
Citrus to spice transition
like dry mulled cider

Bill Blass #7:
a fizzy gin-joint
relaunch of a classic brand
(Nicely done samples)

Harajuku Lovers G:
creamy coconut
with a drydown of Play-Doh
fun for the weird kids

Leslie Vosshall sells out!

Or rather, her talk sold out at the Secret Science Club's meeting last night at Union Hall. Fortunately I was able to sneak in to the standing room only event and catch the tail end of her talk.

I particularly enjoyed her scent world shout-outs. She highly recommends Avery Gilbert's book

What the Nose Knows

, and offered props to the major aromachemical companies and their aggregation in her home state of New Jersey.

She mentioned a new paper on alarm pheromones, that showed that a mere whiff of the stuff could cause mice to freeze. (There is some hot coverage of the frozen mice over at NPR. It's good stuff.)