Valentine’s Day is fast approaching; the shops in Egham are stocked with roses, chocolates and even handcuffs.

However as you browse around for your girl/boyfriend’s Valentine’s present, you may think about how you got to together with them. How did you fall for said girl/boyfriend, were they extremely good-looking, did they have a great personality or did you perhaps just smell that you were right for each other?

You may not know it but ‘smell’ is a key factor in most relationships, and not just where bad cases of BO are concerned. Scientists have long known that some animals are attracted to one another by sensing attractive ‘pheromones’, and then preferring this mate over others.

These ‘pheromones’ are basically odourless chains of chemicals found in animal sweat. Monkeys and other primates produce lots of sweat containing these pheromones. Other monkeys then subconsciously sense these chemicals which will either attract them to this monkey or cause them to be repelled.

Recently scientists have found that we also release pheromones, but from our armpits and from around our groin. They discovered many possible pheromones in men and women, including one named ‘aldrostenol’. Men release this pheromone in their sweat and this is thought to attract some types of women.

However it is also thought that whilst this pheromone may attract some women it also has the ability to repel other types of women. Whether they are repelled or attracted is down to our subconscious sense of smell, which we ‘do not notice’ and are unable to control. In other words scientists aren’t completely clear as to how they work and what the mechanism is.

Some companies, such as ‘FIORA’, have already begun to incorporate human pheromones into perfumes, with the promise that this will make you ‘irresistible’ to the opposite sex. Whilst this seems like a fantastic proposition to all those lonely hearts out there this is actually a case of Bad Science. If there really are £20 concoctions that make you irresistible to the opposite sex, then why are they confined to the internet and why do no major brands (except of course ‘Lynx deodorant bodyspray’*) advertise these products in the media?

The idea of human pheromones has been floating around for many years now, featuring in many movies. In 1997, ‘Poison Ivy’ (Uma Thurman) used a pheromone extract in order to manipulate men, most notably ‘Batman’ himself, into falling in love with her in ‘Batman & Robin’. Matt Damon also used pheromones in order to successfully seduce a casino worker in ‘Oceans 13’. The subject inspired ‘Snakes on a Plane’ with Samuel L. Jackson taking on hordes of pheromone-mad snakes in the action-packed thriller.

If you do want to take a chance with pheromones then you can wander into the Monkey’s Forehead across from campus and find Xcite! being dispensed in the men’s bathrooms. This pheromone wipe suggests ‘Instant Sex Appeal’ to the wearer, warning you to use ‘responsibly’ of course. But before all you guys (and perhaps girls) rush into Monkey’s don’t forget that some things really are too good to be true, and that the most you will probably get from the wipes is a nasty rash.

Whilst we are always looking at ways to pull the opposite sex the best (and probably most annoying) piece of advice would be to be yourself – but showering and smelling nice won’t do you any harm either!

*Lynx deodorant bodyspray does not contain pheromones, but may make you irresistible to the opposite sex. Or so we’ve heard.