You stink but not like that

I've heard people talk about pheromones, in regard to humans, from time to time. The belief in human pheromones is odd to me seeing as we're an extremely vision orientated species and the idea that we would need these silent chemical triggers to illicit response in others seems redundant. We are far too complex an animal to use such a system to communicate and that's why such systems are found in insects (and a small few vertebrates and plants).

It also seems most people tend to refer to sexual pheromones when talking about human pheromones but there are plenty other types of pheromones that exist - including alarm and food trail pheromones.

Now, if someone were to tell you that we have alarm pheromones you'd probably question such a hypothesis.
Why would we emit a silent chemical trigger to warn another of danger when we can shout, jump around etc? It's obvious that we have better systems of communication then that of pheromones.

So why do the vast majority of people believe in these phantom sexual pheromones?

Christ, there's loads of reasons why. Word of mouth and pseudo pop science would be the two biggest reasons \ problems.

When you look at some of the studies that have taken place to find human pheromones (not just sexual ones) it all gets a bit messy. While it can't be said for definitive that humans do or do not give of any pheromones it still seems unlikely that we do.

The most famous such study was performed by Martha McClintock. She investigated the synchronization of menstrual cycles among women based on unconscious odor cues. The results seem to suggest such a phenomenon does occur - however recent studies and reviews of the McClintock methodology have called into question the validity of her results.

Sweat is the closest we have to the idea of a human sexual pheromone. In 2008, it was found using MRI scans that the right orbitofrontal cortex right fusiform cortex, and right hypothalamus respond to airborne natural human sexual sweat, providing neural evidence that socioemotional meanings, including the sexual ones, are conveyed in the human sweat.

So, it seems to be a fuzzy subject. Some of the 'pheromones' found in humans don't operate like pheromones do for other animals. We will never base an attraction or future mate on a pheromone. While there are smells, orders and scents we all like and that exist everywhere they are never the basis for attraction.

My whole point really is that causal \ practical discussion of human pheromones is pointless.

How wrong we can be

When it comes to probability, our intuition tends to lead us the wrong way. A lot of the world of probability works in a counter intuitive manner. Because of this a 'gambler's fallacy' works its way into our thought process when trying to predict how certain events will unfold; from the roll of a dice to the lottery.

This is something I plan to talk about a lot over the coming posts but seeing as I'm still burnt out from my silly bourbon drinking last night I'm going to keep this short. What I'll leave you with is one of these cognitive 'illusions' taken from Derren Brown's book 'Tricks of the Mind'. It's paraphrased so apologises for not having the same wit or writing skills as the man himself.

Imagine there's a disease. This disease if contracted will condemn you to certain death. But the chances of you catching it are very slim, 10, 000:1.
There exists a test that can tell you whether or not you have this fatal disease. You go to the doctor to take the test where you are informed that the test will deliver a correct negative or positive 99 percent of the time.
A week later you get the results in the mail and to your horror the result is positive.

What are your chances of having the disease now that you have this information?
99 percent surely? In fact your chances are less then one percent.

Unless you've heard this problem before or have studied statistics the above conclusion is naturally jarring. It doesn't make sense. But with these kind of cognitive mind fucks you can't go on instinct – your intuition. You have to break it down.

First, the chances of you not having the disease are huge – 9,999:1. Now, let's say 1 million people take the test. Only one hundred people will have the disease. Ninety nine will have got a correct positive while just one will have gotten back a false negative. Now, on the other side of the coin 999, 900 will not have the disease but 1 percent will get the false positive (9,999 people)

So are you more likely to be one of the 99 who have the disease or one of the 9999 that don't and received a false positive?

You're over a hundred times more likely to be in the second group.

To begin...

Christ, don't ever, ever, drink whisky the same day you were under a general anesthetic. Beside the fact that you'll get absolutely fucked up to the point where rivita dipped in mayonnaise seems like fine dining – it also gives you one motherfucking head raping headache in the morning.

Anyway, during that little escapade last night I started this blog. I tried to write a post explaining the name but, being in the state I was in, what I wrote was gibberish. Half sentences. Sentences that moved to the next before they were finished. Using the word cunt so frequently it started to act like some sort of weird grammatical metronome.

Just a mess really.

Then I changed the blog's name.

So, for my first post I'll tell you why I started this blog and what I plan to write about. Seems a pretty vanilla way to kick things off.

I love to talk about what interests me. Who doesn't? But I find the things that really grab me don't grab other people the same way. Or at all. Also, I drink a lot. Because of this when I try to get people interested in what I'm interested in I tend to make little sense and get some facts and figures wrong. I hope with this blog I can get my point across with a bit more clarity and consistency.

So what interests me? Quantum physics and all Science really, Psychology, Video Games, Whisky and Whiskey (the former is Scotch while the latter Irish), some T.V., Medicine, Japan and it's culture, Photography, Probability...and a few other things.

I hope what I share here will interest whoever might end up reading it and I hope the blog will be more about the positive and less the venom spitting, ranting on a soap box type stuff which you find everywhere on the interweb.

I'll still manage to fit in a rant or two, I'm sure.