Sniffing out the truth
February 27, 2016 4:50 AM   Subscribe

Science blogger Christie Wilcox goes in search of the legendary Māmalu o Wahine mushroom, whose odour is said to make women orgasm: Expedition Ecstasy. With bonus gallery of the researcher having an "immediate and massive response" to a specimen.
posted by Joe in Australia (22 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is a bummer but there's definitely a sketchy-if-sporadic spammy redirect happening on phones on the discovermagazine link. If there's a not-attributionally-problematic alternate link we could bring this back with that. -- cortex



 
Reached for comment the mushroom responded: "I was just tired this never happens I swear. Let's do another smell in the morning?"
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:29 AM on February 27, 2016 [7 favorites]


Stinkhorn: Does one of the things it says on the tin.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:35 AM on February 27, 2016 [9 favorites]


Great read! I wish they had collected some to bring back and test on other people.

Then again, that's how The Last of Us starts.
posted by painquale at 5:41 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


That was a really fantastic bit of science writing.
posted by biogeo at 5:49 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


She totally should have had some friends smell the shroom
posted by Area Man at 5:51 AM on February 27, 2016


That is exactly how women react when I make love to them.
posted by lester at 5:52 AM on February 27, 2016


There's a morel to this.
posted by Chitownfats at 6:00 AM on February 27, 2016 [20 favorites]


Great story! Also, ::groan::, chitownfats.
posted by Diablevert at 6:06 AM on February 27, 2016


What, no "I'll have what she's having"?
posted by wenestvedt at 6:09 AM on February 27, 2016


Crimini.
posted by spitbull at 6:13 AM on February 27, 2016 [10 favorites]


Came for the science, stayed for the mushroom puns.
posted by easily confused at 6:19 AM on February 27, 2016


Came for the science

THAT'SWHATSHESAID
posted by duffell at 6:21 AM on February 27, 2016 [19 favorites]


So a sample of one is supposed to refute a sample set of twenty for a phenomena that occurs in a minority? Also, don't they teach scientists how to smell potentially dangerous chemicals anymore? Please, you never do like she did and empty your lungs for a huge breath (you don't smell with your lungs, but you sure can injure yourself that way). You gently waft some of the chemical toward you and start with very small inhales. You can always take increasingly deeper sniffs if it is subtle. I wonder if this is a case like the Maureen Dowd and edible pot.
posted by 445supermag at 6:23 AM on February 27, 2016 [5 favorites]


So...Apparently, some people can't tell the difference between a woman's orgasm and revulsion?
posted by Thorzdad at 6:23 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


So even in ancient times, men had trouble registering the difference between women's arousal and disgust, huh?
posted by saulgoodman at 6:24 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


Honestly, that "Hawaiian legend" set off giant whooping bullshit alarms for me almost immediately. That just was not remotely like any legend or folktale I've ever encountered, even without knowing all the weird wrong grammar and naming conventions the Hawaiian language experts pointed out. But then, I was an English major. It read like what someone who knew what folktales were but hadn't studied them would write.

However, if the linguists, the folklorists, the mycologists, and the herbal medicine people universally listen to your story and go "That sounds like bullshit," I'm pretty comfortable discarding the "sample size of twenty" in favor of one, yeah. :-P
posted by Scattercat at 6:36 AM on February 27, 2016 [3 favorites]


Huh. I really want to RTFA, but clicking on that first link on my phone I can see it for about two seconds and then I'm stuck in a spammy loop promising me an iPhone 7. Is this happening for anyone else?
posted by shiu mai baby at 6:37 AM on February 27, 2016


"Are you okay!?"

"...amanita minute..."
posted by crazylegs at 6:42 AM on February 27, 2016 [4 favorites]


When Harry Met Sally Met Fungus
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:47 AM on February 27, 2016


I really hope "zombie spooge" makes it into the scientific lexicon.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 6:48 AM on February 27, 2016


Yeah, the page appears to have picked up some kind of bad autoredirecting ad since I first clicked on it. Ugh.
posted by Artw at 6:49 AM on February 27, 2016


That John Halliday sounds like a funghi.
posted by pjsky at 7:10 AM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


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