Insense and odour-ability

This 33-year-old perfumer talks about fragrances, travel, sports and more Kiran’s immaculate olfactory senses were a part of his inheritance. Hailing from a family of perfumers, Kiran V. Ranga successfully balances his personal life as a father to a three-year-old and professional life as the founder and managing director of Ripple Fragrances Pvt Ltd, an initiative of Mysore-based NR Group, famous for its Cycle Pure agarbathies. “My father and uncle are creative perfumers and as a kid when I visited the fragrance lab, I was fascinated about the world of odours,” says Kiran,a perfumer with a bachelors degree in business and perfumery at the University of Plymouth, UK. The Mysore-based perfumer has a cultivated taste in fragrances that he likes to wear at different occasions. “My favourite fragrances are L’ homme Libre by YSL and Bvlgari Man for evenings. I love to wear Hugo Boss Sport during the daytime,” he adds and goes on to tell us about the raging trends in the perfume industry, “The trends for 2017 include fruit and cocktail inspired fragrances for summer which conjure exotic island getaways like Tahiti and Bora Bora, warm and spicy fragrances for winter including ginger bread and Vanilla mocha. Marine, fresh and oceanic notes are always in vogue with connotations of corals, seashells and ocean breeze.” Exercising is his idea of unwinding after a hectic day at work. He says, “I like to do some exercises that relax and rejuvenate my mind and body, or I even like to go out for an outdoor jog.” An avid traveller, Kiran likes to explore exotic and faraway lands. Sharing about one of his most memorable holidays, he says, “I enjoyed Santorini, Greece with my family. It has serene views of cliff faces set in pristine waters and surreal sunsets. I was also fortunate to visit Svalbard, Norway on a photography expedition and we managed to capture some amazing shots of polar bears, marine wildlife, and landscapes. The Svalbard archipelago is vastly uninhabited and has incredible sights with floating icebergs and the midnight sun in summer.” Kiran boasts of a penchant for the refined science of molecular gastronomy and fancies a variety of cuisines from across the globe. “I am a foodie and I really enjoy French, Italian and Turkish cuisine,” he shares. “Fatherhood,” Kiran says, “has ushered a new perspective of work-life dynamics. I am married with a three-year-old son. I enjoy spending time with him and my family, and rediscovering the pleasure of simple things we take for granted as adults.” Kiran is also an adventure sports enthusiast. Revealing this interesting aspect to his personality, he says with a boyish charm, “I have trekked to the base camp of Mt Everest. I am a member of Malgudi Mavericks, a motorcycle enthusiasts group in Mysore, and have ridden to Goa and Valparai from Mysore.” A keen wildlife enthusiast, he loves to combine his passion for travelling and exploring the wild and rich fauna and flora. “I have combined my passion for travel and wildlife and explored lesser trodden paths for experiencing different cultures, topography, flora and fauna. My travels have taken me to Svalbard —Norway, Great Bear rainforest — British Columbia, Pantanal — Brazil and Costa Rica. Kabini National Park in Karnataka which is famous for its spectacular wildlife and colourful birds or wildlife tiger reserve in Ranthambore or Bandhavgarh National park are some of my favourite local destinations,” says Kiran.

Unbearable odour dampens spirit of devotees

Ujjain : With the sheer mismanagement on Simhastha Mela premises, the pilgrims are compelled to go through a dreadful experience as the unbearable odour fuming from the effluents leaking out of the septic tanks has made life hell across the fair. As the month-long Simhastha Mahakumbh is heading towards its culmination, scores of anomalies practised by the administration has surfaced. The biggest problem the pilgrims are going through is the odour spreading over the Mela area due to the effluents leaking out of the septic tanks built temporarily in the encampments and for the public use. Septic tanks built for the public toilets across the Mela premises are getting overflow with the large influx of devotees using the toilets. The Mela authority has failed to manage the things and hence the odour is causing great inconvenience to the visitors. As the final Shahi Snan is going to be held on May 21, enormous crowd is thronging to the Mela premises. People are compelled to defecate in open as the community toilets are not cleaned properly. Even the sewerage lines are broken at certain places which are posing a great problem to the visitors. The community toilet near Bharat Seva Ashram in Bhukhi Mata sector is the place where visitors are unable to use the toilets due to the mud and mire prevailed in its surrounding. The odour fuming out of the septic tanks has made life hell for the saints and their guests residing in the surrounding.

Protein that filters odour information

A 30 year-old mystery surrounding the function of a protein in our smell receptors has been solved after researchers revealed it plays a vital role in filtering data from smell receptors. The findings suggest that olfactory marker protein (OMP), a molecule found in the cells that detect odour molecules, plays a key role in regulating the speed and transmission of odour information to the brain. Led by researchers from the Monell Center, the study solves a three-decade-old mystery regarding the function of OMP, and increases understanding of how the olfactory system integrates information to transmit accurate data about odours and the messages they contain. "At any one time, thousands of different odour molecules arrive at the smell receptors in our noses to provide detailed information about the surrounding world. OMP helps the smell receptor cells filter this vast amount of information so that animals can respond appropriately," said Monell cellular physiologist Johannes Reisert, PhD, the study's senior author. Smell signalling Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience, the team explained that the process of converting the chemical information from an odour molecule into an electrical signal that can be transmitted to the brain is controlled by a complex sequence of molecular events called olfactory transduction. Although scientists previously knew that OMP had a role in this process, the exact nature of its role was unclear, until now. In the new study, Reisert and his team found that OMP – expressed in mature smell receptors known as olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) – controls the level of signalling from receptors to the brain by filtering out base levels from ‘background noise’. In mice genetically engineered to lack OMP, the Monell researchers saw a resulting increase in base levels of cellular signals known as cAMP. This increase in base levels blocked differentiation between cellular signals from ‘background’ and a true stimulus. "What this tells us is that OMP dampens cAMP 'noise' to allow the olfactory system to differentiate between odorant receptors and to allow faithful transmission of odour information to the brain," said Reisert. "Understanding how olfactory marker protein and the odorant receptors dictate olfactory receptor neuron responses will help drive the direction of future studies to understand how ORNs contribute to our ability to experience and respond to our olfactory world," added Michele Dibattista, first author of the study. Source: Journal of Neuroscience Volume 36, Issue 10, Pages 2995-3006, doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4209-15.2016 “The Odorant Receptor-Dependent Role of Olfactory Marker Protein in Olfactory Receptor Neurons” Authors: M. Dibattista, J. Reisert

Scientists say that body odour is manliness

MEN who want to appear more manly should consider how nice they smell, new research has found. Scientists at the University of Stirling say that applying deodorant can increase the perceived level of masculinity among men not usually counted as the most rugged among the population. However, this is not the case for those who already have high levels of masculinity, meaning that personal odour counts. The study, which investigated what effect wearing deodorant has on assessing masculinity and femininity, asked 130 female and male participants rate the traits using photographs while a further 239 men and women rated odour samples of 40 opposite sex individuals. The research found that women appear to be more sensitive or attentive to odour cues than males, and men rated low from their photos could increase their masculinity by applying a deodorant Dr Caroline Allen, Psychology researcher at the University of Stirling, who led the study, said: “Our study found that when women apply a deodorant it does increase their rated body odour femininity, as would be expected. "Though it seems as though something else is at play when it comes to male body odour and male deodorants. Only those men who were rated low in masculinity to start with showed a significant increase after applying their deodorants, and the men who were highly masculine initially showed no increase after deodorant application." She added: “This means that men are able to use deodorant to artificially raise their game so to speak, levelling the playing field by making themselves comparable, at least as far as odour is concerned, to more masculine men. "Our evolutionary preferences have likely shaped this difference in fragrance design: research findings show that we actually don't like high levels of masculinity which are often associated with aggressiveness and hostility, but we show no upper limit on our femininity preferences.”