Gabe Oppenheim | She makes us sexy, Harvard be damned

'Harvard is everywhere."

So says the new lifestyle magazine for Crimson grads, 02138, in the introduction to its list of the 100 most influential Harvard alumni.

Bill Gates, though he dropped out, tops the list, and he is followed by President Bush (who has a Harvard MBA) and other notables: Ted Kennedy, Matt Damon, Yo-Yo Ma, Natalie Portman and even Bill O'Reilly.

Obviously, these are important people. But I wonder whether they're as influential as the magazine leads us to believe. After all, influence is the ability to make us "think differently about subjects that already interested us," according to 02138.

And Bill Gates has only reinforced our notions about the world. Computer geeks dress oddly? We believed it from the Revenge of the Nerds films, but Gates sealed the deal. Viruses suck? Well, rabies has infected humans for centuries now, but Gates' vulnerable operating systems have made us loathe viruses that much more.

It's the same for the others. Time and again, Ted Kennedy has underlined the perils of drinking and driving. And Bill O'Reilly proved once more that moralists often preach to cloak their own sins (and loofah fetishes).

In fact, I'd argue that one Penn doctoral alumna has done more to change preconceived notions than any of Harvard's top 100. If influence really is the power to make us "think differently," this 1979 graduate has become one of America's most influential.

Meet Winnifred Cutler.

A specialist in endocrinology, Cutler made history in 1986 when she and a colleague discovered human pheromones. A pheromone is an externally secreted chemical that conveys information to other members of the same species.

Twenty years ago, Cutler collected underarm secretions from men and then swabbed the substance on the upper lips of seven women three times a week. Before the experiment, the women's menstrual cycles had usually lasted less than 26 days or more than 33.

But after three months of sweat-swabbing, the women's cycles started to last 29.5 days - the length correlated with the highest fertility. This demonstrated that "male essence," as Cutler calls it, plays a role in female reproductive health.

The study also gave Cutler an idea: to synthesize and sell pheromones for men and women to wear to attract the opposite sex.

In the '90s, Cutler followed through, creating Athena Pheromone 10:13 and Athena Pheromone 10X. The former is a synthesized pheromone additive for women's perfume, while the latter mixes with men's aftershave.

If the idea sounds bogus, the results have been more convincing. A 1998 study in Archives of Sexual Behavior demonstrates the efficacy of synthesized male pheromones.

The study was placebo-controlled and double-blind, meaning that half the men wore a placebo, and no one in the study knew what he was wearing. The study found that far more pheromone users saw increased sexual activity.

A similar study in 2002 involving women and pheromones showed that sociosexual behaviors "increased over baseline for 74 percent of pheromone users" but for only 23 percent of placebo users.

Of course, both studies were conducted by members of the Athena Institute, the very organization that sells Cutler's pheromone products. But no matter. Last December, ABC News' 20/20 conducted its own test, sending a pair of male twins and a pair of female twins to a speed-dating event.

One twin in each pair wore a scent with pheromones, but no twin knew whether he was wearing a placebo. At the end of the night, the two twins wearing the pheromones had nearly twice as many suitors who wanted to see them again.

Which brings us back to Cutler's role as today's most influential person. For who else has such power to make us "think differently?" To coerce us into liking those whom we may otherwise not like - all through a cocktail of chemicals?

Sadly, Cutler cannot be found in the lists of lifestyle glossies. Her work remains overlooked by those who'd prefer to think the leader of the free world is more influential - simply by virtue of his position. As if George Bush could influence people to like him without pheromones.

Still, you can find Cutler on newsstands this month, with an advertisement for her products on page 162 of Road & Track magazine, near the plug for bootleg Viagra.

No, it's not posh 02138. But in that sense, Road & Track has one thing going for it: Harvard might be "everywhere," but there ain't a Crimson academic in sight in this magazine.

Gabe Oppenheim is a College sophomore from Scarsdale, N.Y. His e-mail address is oppenheim@dailypennsylvanian.com. Opp-Ed appears on Wednesdays.

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