Scientist ivanka savis and his colleagues scanned the brains of 12 men and 65,438 women with contrast technique. It was found that the blood flow in the hypothalamus of men who smelled estrogen would increase, and the blood flow in the hypothalamus of women who smelled testosterone-like compounds would also increase. The specific method is to make 12 men and 12 women smell a series of smells, one is ordinary air, the other is vanilla essence, and the other is a chemical similar to androgen or estrogen. These subjects sniffed these chemicals 1 min while the researchers scanned their brains. This research achievement is no less than an important milestone in pheromone research, which makes scientists happy.

1959 65438+ 10, German scientists Peter Carlson and Martin Rusch put forward a new term-pheromone, which refers to the chemical substances secreted by individuals of the same species for information exchange. The content expressed by this term is not only different from the existing pheromones at that time, but also different from the well-known hormones.

Exohormone is a broader term put forward by physiologist Frankfurt Bert in 1932. It covers a variety of interacting chemicals, including communication or attraction, and generally refers to hormones secreted by animals and perceived by other animals.

However, Carlson and Rush want a narrower concept. The scope defined by this concept is the chemical substances secreted by animals of the same species through animal communication, which play an attractive role. This chemical is composed of very small molecules, which can be dispersed in the wind and spread through the air. This chemical may be secreted by multiple organs, rather than being confined to endocrine glands like hormones.

So, they "invented" a new word-pheromone. Part of this word comes from the Greek pherein, which means transfer; Part of it comes from hormūn instead of n, which means excited; Finally, the word pheromone was synthesized and pheromone was born.

In fact, Carlson and Rush are not the real pioneers of pheromones, they just put forward a brand-new term at the right time. The real pioneer of pheromones was Carlson's colleague Adolf butenandt.

As early as in ancient Greece, people noticed that the secretion of female dogs would attract male dogs. 187 1 Darwin mentioned in a book that the sexes may attract each other through some mysterious chemical signals besides visual and sound communication.

The most detailed description is the famous entomologist Fabers. 19 In the 1970s, he described a strange phenomenon in his works: the male silkworm moth would fly around the female silkworm moth hidden behind the barbed wire, but turned a blind eye to the female silkworm moth in the glass. Obviously, silkworm moths don't attract each other by sight. So, what can replace vision to help silkworm moths convey the signal of "love"?

Nearly 90 years after this question was put forward, 1959, butenandt gave the answer in his paper-the sex pheromone of silkworm moth, a sex pheromone used between silkworm moths.

Of course, butenandt came to this conclusion through rigorous scientific experiments. Because in the course of the experiment, after four steps of separation, confirmation, synthesis and reconfirmation in vivo, Bout Nan Di finally confirmed the existence of pheromone in the laboratory. This discovery also marks the beginning of modern pheromone research.

Carlson and Rush were far-sighted because they noticed that the word pheromone could be applied to many species, including fish, underwater crustaceans, land mammals and insects. They predict that pheromones can not only act through the sense of smell, but also directly act on the brain or other tissues.

Half a century later, these predictions have been confirmed. In this regard, Carlson and Rush may be surprised.