When construction wraps up, Josefina del Mármol's new laboratory on the Harvard Medical School campus will look a lot like those that surround it, with rows of benches sporting chemicals, glassware, and computers.

What will set it apart are the scents: the citrus aroma of a compound called limonene; the clove-like fragrance of another compound, eugenol; the pungent odor of geosmin, reminiscent of a damp cave.

"It does smell quite unique because I use dozens of different odorants for my experiments," she said. "Some are pleasant, and some are awful, and the scent often lingers."

— Read more in Scent of a Human: Researcher probes mysteries of smell through disease-carrying insects at Harvard Medical School.