The perfume that's a pill

Cycling to work? Commuting in overheated trains? Getting nervous before an interview? Soon, you won't have to worry any more about the smell of sweat with the invention of a "swallowable perfume".

Former Australian ballerina and architect Lucy McRae is working alongside Harvard synthetic biologist Sheref Mansy to develop a revolutionary pill designed to deliver perfume directly into the body, turning the skin into an atomiser.

"Swallowable perfume is a digestible scented capsule that emits a unique odour through your own perspiration," McRae writes on her website. "Fragrance molecules are excreted through the skin's surface during perspiration, leaving tiny droplets on the skin that emanate a unique odour. The potency of scent is determined by each individual's acclimatisation to temperature, stress, exercise or sexual arousal."

And, because we are all genetically unique, the perfumed sweat will be individual to us all. But it won't be here in time for Christmas - the invention is pending US Food and Drug Administration approval.