Men and women’s hands can be distinguished just from their scent

Chemistry

Scent compounds released by your hands can be used to determine gender, which may be useful in figuring out information about crime scenes

By Soumya Sagar

A group of hands — The scent compounds given off by your hands can be used to detect gender

Ievgen Chabanov/Alamy

The analysis of scent compounds from a person’s hand can reveal whether they are a man or woman, which could help police work out what happened at a crime scene.

Human odour is a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) secreted from the body. These chemicals are a product of genetics, the environment and body secretions.

To see what information can be gleaned from them, Kenneth Furton at Florida International University and his colleagues …

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