Mystery Of the Senses

In the Elizabethan Age, women used to place peeled apples in their underarms until they were saturated with sweat and then present them to their paramours for an (apparently) aphrodisiac whiff. The offerings were known as "love apples," and while this knowledge won't help you in landing an executive position with a Fortune 500 company, it's still pretty darn good party chit-chat. Unfortunately, this anecdote is not in the series Mystery of the Senses, which aired on Nova. You'll find it in poet Diane Ackerman's wonderful book A Natural History of the Senses, which "inspired" the series. Although lacking much of the exquisitely detailed exotica of Ackerman's book, the series--which is written and presented by Ackerman herself--offers its own charms. We watched all five of the episodes--Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch, and Vision--which combined stories of individuals with either heightened or diminished senses, several tasty infonuggets (in one study, people who were lightly touched by librarians were happier and felt better served; of course, the study didn't mention those who a) took a swing, or b) contacted their lawyers), and detailed computer-animated segments of how the senses actually work in conjunction with the brain. While the programs occasionally got off track (in Smell, for instance, a long excursion into the history and cultivation of frankincense drags), they by and large are fascinating introductions to how we process the stimuli around us. The episodes also look at present and future possibilities (such as cochlear transplants for the hearing-impaired) for bringing lost senses back to the disabled. An excellent series. Highly recommended. [Note: this series is also available to consumers with credit cards for $69.95 by calling 1-800-645-4PBS.] (R. Pitman)