In contrast, 19 fragrances significantly reduced the strength of underarm odour for men.

與之相比，19種腋下混合氣味成功蒙騙了男性的鼻子。

Lead researcher Dr Charles Wysocki, a behavioural neuroscientist, said: "Taken together, our studies indicate that human sweat conveys information that is of particular importance to females.

研究小組的首席研究員、行為神經科學家查爾斯·維索斯基博士表示，綜合實驗結果，人類汗腺分泌的氣味所傳達的信息對于女性尤為重要。

Not only were women better smellers than men, but male odours were harder to block than female odours.

不僅女性的嗅覺比男性敏銳，而且男性的體味比女性的更難隔離。

Underarm odours from the two sexes did not differ in how strong they smelled. However 19% of the fragrances successfully reduced the strength of male underarm odour, compared to over 50% for the female equivalent.

男女腋下體味的強度其實并無差異。但是，男性香水能有效地減弱男性腋下19%的氣味，而女性香水則能掩蓋超過50%的體味。

Dr Leslie Knapp, an expert in biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge, said there were good evolutionary reasons why a woman's ability to detect body odours should be more acute, as it could literally be an effective way to sniff out a suitable mate.

劍橋大學生物人類學專家萊斯利·納普博士表示，女性辨別體味的能力之所以更強是因為進化的原因，因為這樣女性就可以更有效地聞出適合自己的伴侶。

She said: "Women perhaps need to be more discriminating when they choose who to mate with to produce offspring, as they invest more than males in the reproductive process.

她說：“女性可能在選擇與之生育后代的伴侶時需要更有效地識別能力，所以她們在繁衍過程中具備了優于男性的某種能力。”

"Men don't need to be so choosy, they have lots of sperm, and can reproduce with lots of females, but once a woman reproduces with a partner she is tied up for nine months."

“男性不需要如此得謹慎，他們有許許多多的精子，他們可以和許多女性生育后代。而一旦女性懷孕，她們需要經歷9個月的忍耐。”

Dr Knapp said there was evidence that odour gave a hint about genetic make-up. She highlighted HLA genes involved in the immune response.

納普博士說，有證據表明，體味同時也會發出一個人基因組成的信號。她強調，人類白細胞抗原基因就與免疫功能相關。

She said in evolutionary terms it was desirable for a women to mate with a man whose genes were different from hers, as this was likely to produce more robust offspring.

她表示，從進化的角度來說，女性若能和與自己基因組合不同的男性結合是很好的選擇，因為那樣他們的下一代很可能更健康。