If you're prone to queasiness, go ahead and click off this article.
The pungent odour of fancy cheese often smells like feet, or perhaps an un-showered armpit – or even a post-workout, unscrubbed belly-button.
So the obvious conclusion is that, just like a robust Limburger, our own bacteria could make a tasty treat.
American scientist Christina Agapakis and Norwegian scent expert Sissel Tolaas have examined the bacterial link between body and cheese as part of an exhibition about synthetic biology in Dublin.
(Human) Cheese and Wine Reception tomorrow, 6pm. Don't worry, the wine is normal. pic.twitter.com/p2afvh8Cx0— ScienceGalleryDublin (@ScienceGallery) November 14, 2013
Together with chef Michael Pollan, they took bacteria from curator Hans Ulrich Obrist’s nose, a sample from Eliasson's tears and dug out a culture from Pollan's belly button.
They then made some cheese out of it, which is as totally gross as it sounds.
If you're not already retching over your desk, an interesting additional fact is that according to Agapakis the cheese actually smelt and tasted like the body odour of the donor.
She told design magazine Dezeen: “It's no surprise that sometimes cheese odours and body odours are similar,” she explained.
“But when we started working together we were surprised by how not only do cheese and smelly body parts like feet share similar odour molecules but also have similar microbial populations.”
Other artworks at the exhibition are equally, ahem, innovative.
Designer Ai Hasegawa proposes a project in which future humans would give birth to dolphins and other endangered species... and eat them later.