The Null Device

An interesting piece about the quest for the ultimate stink bomb, and the use of odours as psychological weapons.
During the Christmas season county administrators in the northeastern United States will sometimes spray public-property evergreens with a fox-urine-based repellant, in order to discourage poachers. In subzero weather, and open air, the scent is barely detectable. But bring the tree into a closed, 70-degree house and it'll stink up the place.
Dalton and her associates also discovered that people's reactions to odors varied dramatically, depending on the situation in which the scent was smelled. (In normal tests, for instance, people like the smell of wintergreen. But in situations where subjects are told that they'll be smelling an industrial solvent -- but are still given wintergreen -- they won't like it. Most, in fact, will feel actually sick.)

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