Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher first proposed the word "pheromone" in 1959, referring to a chemical cocktail emitted by an animal and detected and responded to by other creatures of the same species. That same year, researchers reported the identification of the first pheromone (called bombykol) in silk moths.
Since then, such chemical equivalents of text messages have been reported in various animals, including some mammals, writes Tristram Wyatt of the University of Oxford in an essay published in the Jan. 15 issue of the journal Nature.
However, the hunt for a human pheromone has come up short.
"We can demonstrate the effects of what are putatively pheromones, but we haven't been able to pin down the chemical identity and show this particular compound or small set of compounds are responsible for outcome A, B and C," said Charles Wysocki, a behavioral neuroscientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia who was not involved in Wyatt's review essay.
That apparently hasn't stopped the press and private entities from sounding the horn.
"If you go onto the Web and put in 'pheromone' into Google, you'll get something like half a million hits, most of them trying to sell you something that will make you irresistible," Wyatt told LiveScience. "They're basically trying to sell you a 'releaser' pheromone, but none has ever been identified."
Since then, such chemical equivalents of text messages have been reported in various animals, including some mammals, writes Tristram Wyatt of the University of Oxford in an essay published in the Jan. 15 issue of the journal Nature.
However, the hunt for a human pheromone has come up short.
"We can demonstrate the effects of what are putatively pheromones, but we haven't been able to pin down the chemical identity and show this particular compound or small set of compounds are responsible for outcome A, B and C," said Charles Wysocki, a behavioral neuroscientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia who was not involved in Wyatt's review essay.
That apparently hasn't stopped the press and private entities from sounding the horn.
"If you go onto the Web and put in 'pheromone' into Google, you'll get something like half a million hits, most of them trying to sell you something that will make you irresistible," Wyatt told LiveScience. "They're basically trying to sell you a 'releaser' pheromone, but none has ever been identified."
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