Smell

Sony Corp. has developed a smelling machine far more effective than a human, but the electronics giant admits it has not scented a business opportunity yet. "The equipment we have made is about 100 times more sensitive than a human's sense of smell, and we think it is possible to make it as sensitive as a dog's eventually," a company spokeswoman said. The sensor can be used to detect the scent of perfumes, toiletries and food flavorings. It scored 10 out of 10 in tests to identify perfumes sold on the market, she said.

A sludge plant whose stench was once the unwelcoming smell motorists got anytime they crossed the Platt Bridge near the airport is the perfect metaphor for the malodorous deal involving City Hall insiders that led to the facility's replacement.   A less fragrant process to turn human waste into fertilizer and fuel has cleared the air of that stench, but the smell left by all the influence-peddling that preceded the deal yet clings to Mayor Nutter, who did what he could to inject some integrity into the contract but could have stood on higher ground morally had he rejected it outright.

Dear Polly: When traveling with our 3-month-old daughter, I always take along our own receiving blankets. Most motels will furnish a crib upon request. I put the receiving blanket down on top of the sheet. The blankets have the smells of home, so our child feels more comfortable and sleeps much better. We too get a better night's sleep and are more refreshed the next morning. - Linda Dear Linda: What a smart mom! Infants are sensitive to familiar smells (almost immediately after birth, they learn to identify Mom partly by her smell!

Dear Anne and Nan: My husband and I bought a couple of dressers at an auction. We got them home and cleaned them up, but they have a musty smell to them. We would like to know if there is a way to get the smell out of the wood. Help! - B. Collins, Barre, Vt. There's a wonderful, environmentally safe product called CITRA-SOLV, which you can get at your grocery store or order from Seventh Generation (800-456-1177). Put a couple of tablespoons of CITRA-SOLV in a gallon of warm water and scrub the dressers.

Dear Polly: I love fish, but my family does not. That's OK, except they always complain about the smell after I cook my fish. Is there some way to get rid of the smell of cooking fish? - J.P. Dear J.P.: Baking fish in the oven rather than frying it leaves much less odor in the kitchen. If there is still an objectionable odor - or if you must have your fish fried - you can try a little simmering potpourri to clear up the air. Put a little cinnamon, or a stick of whole cinnamon, in a pan of water and place it on the stove.

The kids at a little parish school in Port Richmond are unhappy huffers. So says their principal, who blames a glue-like smell that sometimes wafts into the St. George School for making the children sick - and even slightly high. "It's like they're huffing glue," said Jane Rowles, principal of the 210- pupil school on Salmon Street at Venango. ". . . I find the children very hyper after it. " Rowles and some parents fear the children are involuntarily sniffing the solvent toluene, released from the Aldan Rubber Co. next door.

Dear Anne and Nan: I have an old "hope chest" that is cedar-lined. We bought it at an antique show but cannot seem to recapture the cedar smell. We have tried sanding it and rubbing it with cedar oil without success. Any suggestions? - A.B. Slupski, Mount Prospect, Ill. Dear A.B.: Over many years, the oil that naturally occurs in the cedar has dried out. If you have the patience, you will have to apply many coats of cedar oil, enough so that the wood is thoroughly permeated. Unfortunately, you run the risk of making the wood so oily that it will damage anything stored in the chest.

A group of residents has complained to the Lower Moreland commissioners about headaches and breathing difficulties that they say may be caused by a landfill in their section of the township. Five homeowners went to the board's meeting on Wednesday, and their complaints were the same. They wanted to know what was being done about foul odors they said were coming from the Bethayres Reclamation Center, a landfill on Valley and Welsh Roads. "It's getting worse and has been progressively worse since last spring - you can't breathe," said Jay Sherman of Valley Road.

I refer to the "People in the News" item that appeared on May 5. I think it is great that the Philadelphia Club of Advertising Women has bestowed the Silver Medal Award on City Representative Dianne Semingson for launching a worldwide marketing effort in support of economic development of Philadelphia. I commend Ms. Semingson for having special advertising supplements on Philadelphia published in Fortune and Business Week magazines, and for the creation of the new "Philadelphia, Get to Know Us!"

I'm on one of the country's original numbered highways from the 1920s. Signs and many addresses along U.S. 322 call it the 28th Division Highway, in honor of the 28th Infantry, the oldest division in the U.S. armed forces. Today, the unit's in service as part of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. At the western edge of Chester County, I first notice an unusual number of trash trucks on the highway, then the sign for the Lanchester Sanitary Landfill and a smaller attached sign that reads: Scenic Overlook.

Janice Sachen of Chicago offers what she says is a sure cure for that cat-urine smell. "My older cat started urinating on the basement floor and she would always go back to the same spot because she could smell the urine. "I tried everything to mask the smell to no avail. Finally I tried peroxide, the regular drugstore kind, although there are stronger concentrations available at chemical supply houses. "I sprayed a full-strength solution on the concrete area, and it neutralized the smell.

A tenant in a Haddon Heights building that exploded Saturday because of a natural gas leak told authorities that she had smelled gas four hours earlier in her apartment, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday. The tenant, who was rushing out of her unit when she smelled the gas, told investigators about the odor after the explosion and fire that leveled the house around 3:30 p.m. Jason Laughlin, the spokesman, could not immediately say what floor the tenant - who was not home at the time of the explosion - lived on. Raquel Nunn, 26, who lived on the third floor, suffered burns over 60 percent of her body in the blast, which authorities said was fueled by a leaking natural gas line to an appliance on the second floor and triggered when Nunn turned on her stove.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Cadaver dogs were searching the smoldering remains of a Kansas City restaurant that burned to the ground Tuesday night after a gas explosion and huge blaze at the upscale Country Club Plaza shopping area, a fire official said. At least 15 people were injured. Kansas City Fire Chief Paul Berardi said late Tuesday that the search for possible victims could take hours and that he expected his crews to be at the scene through the night. While officials have said they had no reports of fatalities, Berardi said: "I would always fear there are fatalities in a scene like this.

By James Brobyn If you asked me what I remember most about my time as a Marine in Iraq, my answer would probably surprise you. More than anything, I remember the smells. To this day, I can still smell the aromas of Iraqi towns and foods, which trigger fond memories of exploring a new culture with my fellow Marines. And I can recall the less pleasant smells of hydraulic fluid leaking from my light-armored vehicle, and of a platoon of Marines who hadn't showered for 45 days. And then there are the sinister odors of dead and decaying bodies, blended with the strangely sweet smell of explosive residue.

If Brad Pitt wants me to douse my body in Chanel No. 5, then I will - even if he barely makes sense. The world's iconic women's fragrance kicked off its latest advertising campaign last month with a 31-second commercial featuring gray-templed Pitt mumbling nonsense.   "It's not a journey," Pitt says (so serious!). "Every journey ends, but we go on. The world turns and we turn with it. Plans disappear. Dreams take over . . . . " Is this a 12th-grade sonnet class or a TV ad?

They died in a puff of smoke. One brief, billowing, black cloud against the bluest sky was the only visible evidence that something awful and monumental had just happened in Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands that Tuesday morning 11 years ago. A photograph of that puff of smoke, hovering like a malevolent storm cloud over a peaceful landscape of red barns and green pastures, was taken by someone living a mile and a half away minutes after the crash....

Nick Lachey has come out squarely on the side of parents who like to smell their children. Yep, he says, I love sniffin' my son. Nick, whose wife, Vanessa , delivered their first baby, son Camden John , on Sept. 12, has a unique way of expressing parental pride. He sniffs his son. He takes in the bairn's odorous aura. "That smell of your newborn baby doesn't last very long, but it's something you'll always remember," Nick, 38, tells Parade. "So I find myself sniffing his head and his neck.

Come back, Mitt! Last week, the Republican presidential candidate returned to Pennsylvania for the first time since mid-July. Thanks for stopping by! At a morning Union League fund-raiser, Romney said it would be a "shock" if Pennsylvania "actually did come our way. " By the time he arrived at Valley Forge Military Academy, the former governor was feeling triumphant, promising, "We're going to take Pennsylvania. " Clearly, Romney embraces change, in the span of an hour going from shock to awe. President Obama's been equally elusive.

Question: While I love the "new car scent" of my new SUV, I can't help but think that it's not good for me to breathe in those chemical fumes. How dangerous is it? Answer: The new car smell that many of us love is nothing but glue and plastic fumes given off from a freshly manufactured car. Despite the alluring scent, chemical fumes like those aren't healthy to breathe in. A 2001 Australian study found the following chemicals released from a new car's interior: benzene, cyclohexanone, and styrene.

Her apron smudged, Tegan Hagy could be found one day last week in her usual, if rather unlikely, haunt — a second-floor kitchen space she shares with a cupcake baker in the echoing vastness of the old Globe Dye Works at the edge of Frankford's postindustrial boneyard. She is the city's only — though far from its first — maker of bean-to-bar chocolate bars (hers are PhillyLoveBars), sourcing and roasting her own cocoa beans, one 145-pound bag at a time. She has bigger plans, of course.