"The Semaq Beri, like the Jahai, use abstract color words, but they also have abstract smell words they use for different qualities of smells," [Linguist Asifa Majid] says. For instance, the Jahai word Cηεs describes the seemingly dissimilar smell of petrol, smoke, bat poop, root of wild ginger and wood of wild mango. To the Jahai, all these scents have this quality of Cηεs.

— Another take on that hunter-gatherer study I mentioned the other day. Read more at That Smells Like ... Um, I Can't Think Of A Word For It! at NPR.

With funding from Parkinson’s UK and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Barran’s team has already collected more than 800 samples of sebum, an oily substance secreted by skin, swabbed from the backs of volunteers. In preliminary tests they’ve found several molecules that are elevated in people with Parkinson’s disease. Together, the molecules could create a diagnostic fingerprint for the disease.

— Joy Milne thought her husband smelled different, starting about six years before he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Scientists are paying attention; read more at You Can Smell When Someone's Sick—Here's How at National Geographic.

What do we talk about when we talk about smell? Mostly other things. English speakers frequently describe a scent according to what it reminds us of, not using a specific name for the odor itself. [...]

But because a thing might hold true for Westerners or English speakers does not mean it is universal to the human experience. [Linguists Nicole Kruspe and Asifa Majid] are studying hunter-gatherer cultures in Asia, where people take a very different approach to odors. In 2014, Majid discovered that people who speak the Jahai language named odors as easily as English speakers identify colors.

— Read more at These hunter-gatherers are probably better at naming scents than you at The Washington Post.

What do you generally do when you're stressed? Maybe have a warm cup of coffee, hoping that it would give you a relief? Science says all you need to do is sniff your romantic partner's shirt.

Yes, all those "sniffing sweater" scenes you have seen in romantic movies actually work. In fact, a recent study published this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has found that anxious women had lower stress levels when they smelled shirt their partners had worn.

— Read more in Sniff your stress away: Study shows the best way to get your zen back on stressful days at International Business Times.

These elements—cold weather, humidity, and a stimulated trigeminal nerve—combine to create something that isn’t an odor, but a sensory experience you’ve come to associate with snow. That’s why when asked to describe the scent, people often use words like “clean,” “fresh,” and “cold"— a.k.a. things that don’t have much of a scent at all.

— Read the longer explanation at What’s Really Happening When You "Smell" Snow at Mental Floss.