At 09:07 PM 5/20/2014, Warren D Smith wrote:

is this a joke?

Unfortunately, no: http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmeth.2935.html Olfactory exposure to males, including men, causes stress and related analgesia in rodents Nature Methods (2014) doi:10.1038/nmeth.2935 Received 14 November 2013 Accepted 21 March 2014 Published online 28 April 2014 We found that exposure of mice and rats to male but not female experimenters produces pain inhibition. Male-related stimuli induced a robust physiological stress response that results in stress-induced analgesia. This effect could be replicated with T-shirts worn by men, bedding material from gonadally intact and unfamiliar male mammals, and presentation of compounds secreted from the human axilla. Experimenter sex can thus affect apparent baseline responses in behavioral testing.