Fear and Pheromones

Pheromones are used for communication within a species. When an organism releases pheromones, it elicits either an overt or physiological reaction in the receiving organism of the same species (Carlson, 2007, p. 271). Pheromones were originally studied in insects. For instance, it was found that when ants rub their antennas together they are exchanging pheromones to confirm each other’s species and colony identity (Seppa, 1998). Later studies extended to smaller animals such as mice ( as previously discussed in Physiology and reproduction as posted on 1/10/10. e.i Lee-Boot effect and Whitten effect).
Research and interest on human pheromones is relatively new concentrating mainly on sexuality and attraction. It was interesting to find another angle of study on this interesting subject.
Apparantly, it has been discovered that there is a pheromone for fear. An article in The Pretonia News (2008) cited a research study that investigates whether sweat can give out signals that might subconsciously be picked up by others. US researchers collected sweat from 40 novice sky divers as they fell of to the earth by taping absorbant pads to their armpits. A second group of of volunteers were asked to smell the samples while having their brain scanned. It revealed increased activity in the areas of the brain associated with fear and emotional responses---the amygdala and hypothalamus (The Pretonia News, 2008).
The potential of the fear pheromone apparantly has peaked the interest of many scientist and researchers. At this time, the City University of London with the support of The Home Office Scientific Development Branch is developing the technology to produce two sensors that can "detect the unique chemical signiture of the fear pheromone" (Zolfagharifard, 2009). These devices will be specifically designed to identify terrorist at airport security checks and high profile events.This technology is foreseen to be developed within the next two to three years (Evening Chronicle, 2009).
There have also been reports of isolating the fear pheromone for warfare purposes. An article by Randerson (2008) cites the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, otherwise known as "DARPA" as one oganizational group funding this type of study. He further speculates the possibility of its use in inducing terror in enemy troops. DARPA, of course, denies that they will further fund any more research of this field or that it plans to use fear pheromones for military purposes.

References
James Randerson. (2008, December 5). You can smell fear, say scientists. The Hindu,***[insert pages]***. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1808742081).
Ellie Zolfagharifard. (2009, October). NEWS: Sensor system sniffs out trouble. The Engineer,12. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1886558551).
Carlson, N.R. (2005). Foundations of physiological psychology (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Scientists sniff out 'fear sweat' :NWS. (2008, December 8). The Pretoria News,6. Retrieved June 4, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1608424461).
A DEVICE that smells human [ ... ]. (2009, November 9). Evening Chronicle,4. Retrieved June 5, 2010, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1897025011).