Rating: 
Summary: But is it about smell?
Review: This is a startling book in the story it tells. According to this book all of us have an organ in our nose that responds to airborne signals, but these signals may not have smells. So, the fact that much of this book is about smell may confuse - it certainly took me close to the end of the book before I realised that Jacobsen's Organ responds not necessarily to smell but to other vapours. The fact that the olfactory nerve does respond to smell demeans Jacobsen's Organ if it too responds to smell. But what if Jacobsens' Organ responds to vapours that do not smell? This is a very striking possibility.Experiments have been done on animals that also possess a Jacobsen's Organ and Mr Watson describes the data gathered from such experiments - inferring extensions to human beings. We know that animals respond to chemical signals called pheromones. Are there similar messages passing between people? For those of us who do have a sense of small (most people) I like to call smell the 'involuntary' sense - we must breathe so we must smell whatever is carried in the air. There is no other similar sense except touch - and that only in the blessedly rare occurence of torture. We can always cover our eyes or ears, keep our mouths closed. But we cannot stop breathing for any length of time. Consequently I was interested in Mr Watson's information about smell - its types, and our reactions to them. But the real value from this book didn't come, for me, in the descriptions of smell (which I found rather rambling), but in the description of Jacobsen's Organ - of which I had been totally ignorant. And the possibility of sensing non-smelling signals - pheromones perhaps - that circulate involuntarily between people is startling. Is that sense of instant bonding that occasionally occurs when I meet someone caused by messages passing between us, sensed by our Jacobsen's Organs and immediately modifying our mood?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read, but very "easy" at the same time.
Review: This is the softest of science writing. It's written for a high school level, at best -- or, if you prefer a different analogy, it's written like a 'Discovery' or 'Popular Science' essay. Easy, accessible, and glossy glossy glossy. It also wanders something fierce, let me tell you. The author seems to have a point... but there's no tight focus, no direction. One of the New York Times reviewers said the book was like a "county fair" -- and I'm not sure that's a compliment! However, if you can be patient with the wandering, the lack of focus, and the gloss... wow! Great information, humorously presented, packed with bizarre trivia and some pretty new-to-me ideas. I would definitely recommend this book for readability and content.
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