Posted by Robin on 8 Comments
“In the Japanese study, when researchers did not tell participants what the odor was, they rated it as ‘inoffensive,’” Dr. [Johan] Lundstrom says. “But when they said it was from an old person, it was rated as ‘nasty.’”
— Dr. Lundstrom is with the Monell Chemical Research Center. Read more at Do Older People Have a Different Smell? at The New York Times.
Posted by Robin on 2 Comments
But these supersized snoots are constantly serving up surprises—and a group of researchers has now discovered that they’re discerning enough to distinguish more from less. Their study, published today in the journal PNAS, suggests elephants can use scent alone to differentiate between quantities of sunflower seeds that might flummox even the most hawk-eyed of humans.
— Read more at Elephants Can Use Scent to Distinguish More From Less at NOVA.
Posted by Robin on 10 Comments
People are born with synesthesia, and when you’re about a year old you lose it. Only five per cent of people walk around as adults with synesthesia. But the neurons you have now are the same ones you were born with. You can wake them up, and that’s what we’re going to try to do today.
— Perfumer Ron Winnegrad, talking to students at a workshop on synesthesia. Read more at Scents and Sensibility at The New Yorker.
Posted by Robin on Leave a Comment
Scientists have sniffed out the chemicals that give some dark chocolates their smell.
The compounds that mingle to make the candy’s aroma include pleasant-smelling ones such as vanillin, which gives vanilla its smell, and flowery linalool. But other molecules produce smoky or vinegary odors and even one that smells like sweat, researchers report online May 8 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
— Read more at Sweaty, vinegary and sweet odors mingle to make dark chocolate’s smell at Science News.
Posted by Robin on Leave a Comment
Mershin, however, believes that we don’t really have to understand how mammals smell to build an artificial nose. He’s betting that things will work the other way around: To understand the nose, we have to build one first. In his efforts with a brilliant mentor named Shuguang Zhang, Mershin has built a device that can just begin to give dogs—his panting adversaries—a run for their money.
— Andreas Mershin of MIT is trying to build a nose. Read more at The Quest to Make a Bot That Can Smell as Well as a Dog at Wired.