HiDurian is a real pleasure - I can get them locally and they are a huge treat!On 26 Jan 2016, at 02:21, Artem Evdokimov wrote:Not sure :(Mercaptanes are pretty much all smelly (less so as they get large and less volatile). So are arsines and other fun reactive chemicals although I think mercaptanes are so smelly to us because they are common byproducts of putrefaction and this is the case of evolution telling proto-man that eating this particular smelly animal carcass would be a jolly bad idea. Ditto the aptly named putrescine and cadaverine (and many of the long-chain fishy amines in general). Those who evolved to recognize the smell as 'bad' lived, the others followed the cold merciless miracle of natural selection. Makes one wonder about lutefisk, durian fruit, and many of the nastier cheeses...The headaches are real, though. Mine get bad enough to qualify as migraines.Artem- Cosmic Cats approve of this messageOn Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 9:15 PM, Keller, Jacob <[log in to unmask]> wrote:>BME gives Artem (and several people I know) wicked headaches, even at minimal exposure.
I have always wondered whether the headache or perhaps also the stinky smell itself comes from some disulfide-bonded protein in the olfactory apparatus getting reduced. Also with glutaraldehyde—are the olfactory receptors getting cross-linked?
JPK
Harry--Dr Harry Powell, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QHChairman of International Union of Crystallography Commission on Crystallographic ComputingChairman of European Crystallographic Association SIG9 (Crystallographic Computing)