“A group of scientists are experimenting with the worst smells imaginable to help the military develop an “odor bomb” so foul it could clear crowds,” according to this AP report.

`What they would be interested in is something to keep people out of certain areas,’ said Pamela Dalton, a researcher at the Philadelphia-based Monell Chemical Senses Center. `We are going for odors that every culture has experienced and the experience is negative.’

The Pentagon asked Monell to help develop the stinky but non-lethal weapon. The center’s work on putrid odors was reported in the Jan. 7 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

About 50 Monell researchers are probing human pheromones, inquiring about food cravings or sniffing body odors. Dalton’s job is to investigate what odors offend people.

`Whether people are born with preferences for odors or whether it is learned, we don’t know,’ said Dalton.

Researchers have looked for odors that produced a negative reaction in all cultures, such as human waste, rotting animal flesh and garbage.

They focused on biological odors, believing they were most likely to be recognized, Dalton said.

Dalton cautioned that the military could be a long way from developing such an offensive weapon, and that scientists are still trying to work out some bugs.

`How do you contain these odors until you are ready to use them?’ she asked.

A weapon like this would be wonderful for forcing enemies out of, say, cave and tunnel complexes…

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