If you can tell the difference between a merlot and a cabernet franc just by smell, it’s probably all in the timing.

That’s because the odor-decoding centers of the brain will pay more attention to the first smell signals to reach them, regardless of how long or strong the remainder of the sniff may be, according to a pair of Duke University neurobiologists who have teased apart the neural circuitry of smell in mice.

— Read more at Fine-tuned Sense Of Smell Relies On Timing at Duke Today.

Using this strategy, the scientists found that odor molecules could similarly be mapped onto a curved surface in three dimensions. But instead of a sphere, like Earth, it turned out to be the shape of a Pringles potato chip -- a shape mathematicians call a hyperboloid.

— It's Science Friday! Read more at What's that smell? Scientists find a new way to understand odors: A mathematical model reveals a map for odors from the natural environment at Science Daily.

Most of us have heard of visual hallucinations i.e. seeing things that are not actually there. It is relatively lesser known that some people can experience something similar related to their sense of smell.

Smelling something foul (like an ashtray or burning hair) despite no source could mean that a person is affected by something known as phantom odor perception. New findings suggest that nearly 6.5 percent of Americans over the age of 40 have experienced it.

— Read more at What Is Phantom Odor Perception? at Medical Daily.

Yet for the average Londoner, our olfactory life goes unnoticed. This is more than coincidence — last year bioanthropologist Dr Kara Hoover warned that harsh city smells of rubbish and pollution are affecting our ability to detect nuances in scent that occur in nature. The term for this modern disconnect is ‘cultural anosmia’ and it can be more detrimental than we realise.

— Read more at Urban life is damaging our sense of smell — but reconnecting with the aromas around us has untold benefits at Evening Standard. You can find Kara Hoover's website, The Smell of Evolution, here.

Specifically, researchers split 114 students into two groups to answer maths questions from the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). One group was exposed to a coffee smell during the test, and ended up with "significantly higher" scores. What's more, based on questions asked during the test, just smelling the beverage seemed to boost students' expectations for how well they would do.

— Read more at Even Just The Smell of Coffee Could Actually Perk Up Your Brain, Study Shows at Science Alert.