Dutch scientists suggest that as smoking bans mean club-goers can now smell all the nasty beer, puke, sweat, and so on in nightclubs, owners may want to spritz their businesses with "carefully selected fragrances [that] can enhance dancing activity, improve the overall perception of the evening, and improve how nightclub goers rate the music as well as their mood," as a press release puts it.

Their scents of choice were peppermint, orange, and seawater, dispersed via fragrance machines into three different clubs popular with students. The researchers observed the levels of dancing on the dance floor and afterwards waylaid 849 club-goers with questionnaires. Did they have a good time? How was the music? How were they feeling?

The researchers found that the scents got people to dance more and upped their mood and attitudes about the clubs compared with scentless trials, and that each of the three smells had the same effect. Nevertheless, they concluded that "environmental fragrancing" might be a real draw for nightclubs, encouraging return visits and greater spending.

"People enjoy rooms that don't smell like rotting beer and sweat. In other news, water is still wet."