Your Monday morning science lesson: Nsikan Akpan of NPR walks you through Cracking the Olfactory Code, an odor research project at the University of Colorado Boulder. They are working to teach robots to smell. You can read more at What a smell looks like at NPR.
Scientific order
Scientists are announcing development and successful testing of the first "perfumery radar (PR)." It's not a new electronic gadget for homing in on the source of that Eau de Givenchy or Jungle Tiger in a crowded room. Rather, PR is a long-awaited new tool for bringing scientific order to the often arbitrary process of classifying the hundreds of odors that make-up perfumes.
— Read more at 'Perfumery Radar' Brings Order to Odors at Science Daily. Many thanks to Ruth for the link!
The electronic nose
The electronic nose, which is to be installed on the International Space Station in order to automatically monitor the station's air, can detect contaminants within a range of one to approximately 10,000 parts per million. In a series of experiments, the Brain Mapping Foundation used NASA's electronic nose to sniff brain cancer cells and cells in other organs. Their data demonstrates that the electronic nose can sense differences in odour from normal versus cancerous cells.
From NASA's Electronic Nose May Provide Neurosurgeons With A New Weapon Against Brain Cancer at Science Daily.