European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 4, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Lust evidence suggests that May. File scientific research although Stilt in its infant stages is beginning. To pinpoint the causes of lust such As that shown by Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas in Basic instinct new sense Enlil by Kenton Robinson it the Hartford courant an s search for a genuine Phil Ter a True elixir of love is As old As the quest to transmute Lead into Gold. A _ now there is mounting evidence that the key to human lust May lie As close As our own sorry skin and that the lock is a shy tiny bundle of cells stuck Halfway up our nose. No it s not the sense of smell it s a Ely a sixth sense it s called the Vomer nasal Organ and As yet there in t even a verb for. What it does. We see we hear we touch and taste and smell things a and. With our Vomer nasal Organ scientists often Call it the no we seem to a what?.�? no things. What we no Are putative pheromones produced by. Our own and other people s ski Sand what those putative pheromones actually do to us is the jumbo jillion Doliar Jackpot question. Leading the Effort to answer that question is California tycoon David Berliner it was Berliner who first seriously entertained the idea that humans might produce and respond to pheromones a pheromones Are chemical substances secreted by various animals to Send messages to other members of their species. Moths do it pigs do it mice and Prairie Voles do it there is research suggesting goldfish and even hamsters do it. Berliner isolated skin extracts and found that when he exposed them to typically Type a colleagues they seemed to turn into Type b. But it would be 20 years before Berliner had time to follow up on that serendipitous observation. He did t have time because by consulting for the. Company that made the first birth control Pill sold in the United Stales Berliner suddenly found himself Rich so Rich that he could ditch his research Job and become biomedical entrepreneur. He froze his skin extracts moved to California and set up a succession of successful biotech companies to make All sorts of innovative products a like drug dispensing skin patches. Then in the mid 80s, Berliner thawed out his skin. Extracts went to his old Friend Larry Stensaas a euro r anatomist at the University of Utah and said Quot i think i be got some pheromones Here. How could we test them in humans Quot. This was a fairly Radical notion because mammals can t sense pheromones without a working Vomer nasal Organ and the prevailing Wisdom was that the human. Vomer nasal Organ was a like the appendix a vestigial. Stensaas and physiologist Luis Munti Bloch set aside the question of whether these were Quot True Quot pheromones a there s a roaring debate in scientific circles Over what is. And is not a pheromone a and focused their attention on the question of whether the Vomer nasal Organ would respond to any of these substances. To do this they concocted a tube and electrode device they could stick up people s noses to puff the no with these putative pheromones and measure its response. Not Only did the Vomer nasal Organ respond but it appeared to be hardwired into the most primitive part of the human brain. Clue an electrode to someone s head and puff a pheromone up his nose and a Blip a the electrode will read a Spike in the brain s electrical flow a. The part of the brain in question is the hypothalamus Quot which we know has the principle  in initiating sexual activity Quot Stensaas says. A but the most suggestive finding was this what turns in a Man is no does not turn on a woman a and vice versa. Different pheromones for different folks. We d id n t be i Ieve i to Quot Sten saas s a s. Quot 11 was just too Good to be . Those findings Are certainly intriguing says Charles Wysocki who has been studying animal pheromones at them hell chemical senses Center in Philadelphia since 1978. Quot but by no Means is it proof that you have a functional Vomer nasal Organ that is detecting a . "1 think n of people e Are be n e Raly agreed that h us a n s a have a Vomer nasal Organ. The question remains Are there sensory cells that Are receptive to chemicals Tike there Are in other animals if you look at the cells in other animals you see a very Nice population of bipolar receptor cells. Those Are sensory receptors that detect pheromones and perhaps other the i n is. T n he m a is to u Don t see a very Nice picture Tike . _ nevertheless Berliner has already created a Quot pheromone Quot laced perfume a in his and hers versions a called realm. Is realm the recipe for ecstasy the great inhibition override. Quot these perfumes Are not aphrodisiacs. They do not stimulate a  of the brain , wow i be got to have sex right now what it does is make you feel. Comfortable with yourself secure a bout yourself self it  a a. A a when asked about possible aphrodisiac effects Stensaas laughs. A a.   any mating behaviour yet Quot he says. Quot we be seen people report feeling really Good and self a confident and More relaxed Quot. A a. A \ b u t i 11 Thi s research e be r Lead to a to u e a pm Rod i s t a ? j i Don t be i i e be i to Quot b e re i n or says. T be i i eve a tha t w a could happen is that the people that might have a Low libido could increase their libido and everything stops right  if humans do indeed respond to pheromones it could explain a lot. -. A a love at first scent fore am pie. Or it could explain Why we kiss. Quot you must have noticed when two people kiss Quot Berliner says. Quot their noses Cross each other. Notice the. Area that is Between your Cheek and your nose. Have you Ever seen that there s some lipid in it that it s a Little bit waxy the cells there Are loaded basically loaded with these pheromones. So what happens when you re kissing you re getting Boom i mean you re loading yourself with these  Stensaas has another take on that question. Quot other animals have special glands usually around the Tail end of the animal that Are making these substances Quot he says. Quot maybe our glands Are simply put in a different place because our social and grooming and other kinds of interactions make it a More viable Way to Send our signals than by glands around the Tail end Quot b u t we i be Stensa As a and h i s col leagues con tin be to a explore this Quot new Quot sense Berliner is already exploring new.  has formed yet another biotech company Pherrin a a corp., which is focusing on the pharmacologic possibilities. Quot what we have done is we have taken the naturally i occurring molecules and we have changed them a a dramatically so. It functions a million times better a thousand times belter Quot he says. Quot we Are synthesizing new products for the treatment of diseases. Now we can communicate with the brain directly with the  a cos Jibu Ted by Ibe los  times Washington Post news service 24 the stars and stripes monday tue Day july 4/5, 1994 the stars and stripes