Saturday, July 30, 2011

Family Feud: Gilbert vs. Vosshall on Human Sex Pheromones

Here’s a video snippet of the World Science Festival smell panel in which Prof. Leslie Vosshall and I argue about human sex pheromones. I say the original concept has been stretched to fit so many variant results that it’s no longer useful. Leslie thinks otherwise.


P.S. Earlier in the program, Leslie mentioned this study showing that lap dancers make better tips during the ovulatory phase of their cycle. I agree this might be due to an airborne chemical signal but I don’t think it qualifies as a pheromone (unless tossing $5 bills at a naked girl is a behavior hardwired by evolution). Thus my otherwise baffling line: “I believe in strippers.”

P.P.S.Well, okay, maybe not that baffling.

2 comments:

~x~ said...

you did a good "lapdance revival" dance too.

Avery Gilbert said...

~x~:

Heh.

I always wanted to be David Byrne in the Big Suit.

Same as it ever was.