FORGET love horoscopes. If you want to know what the future holds for you and
a partner, sniff yourselves with an “e-nose”.
Researchers in Germany have developed an electronic nose that can detect the
smells that mice use to choose mates with compatible genes. The device should
make it easier to test the controversial idea that people also rely on smells,
and that having the wrong ones may sometimes sow the seeds of divorce.
Rodents sniff their suitors to see whether they have the same major
histocompatibility complex genes as their own. MHC genes code for proteins in
the immune…
