Science Memes

11205 readers

2496 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

[email protected]

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

1163

Ant smell (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

469 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/61/2/85/1756864

https://www.livescience.com/why-ants-smell-weird

However, the sense of smell in humans is far less developed, and there has been recent controversy over what, exactly, the odorous house ant smells like. This species belongs to a large group of ants whose members are thought to smell like blue cheese (Forney and Markovetz 1971) [link is direct 3.0 mb .pdf download from elsevier], yet numerous online sources report their odor as “rancid butter,” “cleaning solution,” or, most commonly, “rotten coconuts.”

Specifically, the house ~~hippo~~ ant.

*The actual factual paper was actually literally published in 2015, no cap.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

At the same time, Penick had people rate what they thought the ant smelled like. Most people said blue cheese, but some thought it smelled like rotted coconut. So Penick rotted a coconut in his backyard and found a mold growing on it that, sure enough, is the same mold (Penicillium roqueforti) that's used to produce blue cheese. Another mystery, solved.

So American house ants, rotten coconuts and blue cheese all smell the same. Life is weird.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Uh oh. They smell like blue cheese? That means they smell delicious!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thats what i was thinking, i love bluecheese!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Especially Blue Stilton. By far my favorite cheese!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Uhh... Wait. I may be able to smell them. Those descriptions are making me realize some things.