Want to Meet the Smell of Your Dreams?

The nose knows. A new dating agency aims to use research into body odor to match up singles who just sniff right to each other, the Economist reports. The founder of ScientificMatch.com is drawing on a ten-year-old study that found a genetic reason for why women found the smell of some men's dirty shirts more attractive than others.

In the study, women volunteers sniffed and rated the smell of men's three-day-old T-shirts. DNA analysis of the sniffers and the wearers found a link to genes that affect the immune system. Singles hoping to find that biologically compatible smell will need to send a check, a mouth swab and a questionnaire to the agency—but no dirty shirts. (More online dating stories.)