Another silly poll

[enismirdal]

A discussion at the pub today resulted in the startling realisation by me and flatmate and a friend that not everyone can smell cucumber. We all agreed that we can smell a freshly-cut cucumber at probably 5 feet away, whilst some of the other people present reckoned they wouldn't be able to smell one if their nose was an inch away.

This led us to wonder where cucumber-smelling is a single-gene ability, like tongue-rolling, freesia-smelling and PTC-paper-tasting.

In preparation for what shall surely be a ground-breaking Nature paper, I wish to conduct a survey...

[Poll #1238935]

Comments

[miriammoules.livejournal.com]

My housemate is deathly allergic to them.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Eep!

[miriammoules.livejournal.com]

And we don't know what the thing is, but Ithink it might be related...

[melime.livejournal.com]

I can smell them, but it is always very faint.

Very unlike my nose's reaction to the deadly celery fumes that apparently NO ONE ELSE CAN SMELL. Come on, seriously? It is so extremely stinky. And it lingers. Damn you celery!!

[naurring.livejournal.com]

Actually cucumbers just smell of water...

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

... and chlorophyll.
But it's a very distinct water-and-chlorophyll smell. ;)

[naurring.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that mean that they smell the same as salad? :P Just water and chlorophyll as well, after all.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

But salad smells less water-y.

(This makes sense in my brain, I swear)

[naurring.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't worry, that makes sense.

I realized a few days ago there's another thing I can't smell (should I be scared about how much I have been thinking about the scent of cucumbers?): garlic. Everybody keeps telling how awefull it smells, but I just can't see that it has any smell at all. It tastes great, tough. :P

[cobalt-skye.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the lab lunchtime conversation the other day about peeing pink after eating beetroot and the genetic associations. The one person who did pee pink wasn't sure if her son does (he's only about 1.5 years old) and wasn't too impressed when we told her to experiment on her family...

[gyre.livejournal.com]

I can especially smell them in regards to a Hendrick's and tonic.

http://www.hendricksgin.co.uk/