Keep calm! A study of dental students suggests that dentists can smell when a patient is anxious, and it makes them more likely to make mistakes and perform badly.

The finding is the first real-world evidence that chemical signals hidden in our body odour can betray our emotions and influence the behaviours of those around us, says Valentina Parma at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy.

Plenty of lab-based experiments have found that body odours of people experiencing emotions – particularly negative ones like disgust, fear and …