You Stink: Odorprints Revealed

LiveScience.com-- Each person has a signature body odor — the chemical counterpart to fingerprints — and scientists are tracking down those odiferous arches, loops, and whorls in the "human odorprint" for purposes ranging from disease diagnosis to crime prevention, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News.

Police long have used trained dogs to sniff out these uniquely personal scents in pursuing criminals, the article points out. Scientists now are trying to decipher the chemistry of human odor to develop technology that can detect and classify smells. They have identified odors in human breath and skin associated with diabetes, cancer, and other diseases. Now researchers are trying to detect the "smell of deception," or chemical changes that occur with heightened stress that may help screen and identify, for example, terrorists planning to blow up an airplane and criminals intending to rob a bank.

It's not easy. Each person's odorprint is a complex mixture impacted by multiple environmental factors, including diet and overpowering cosmetics. However, a study last year found that your underlying odorprint doesn't go away even if you change your diet, just as gloves might mask but not destroy your fingerprints