Meet Laurax, a not-very-bold, not-that-exciting new fragrance. According to a panel of sniffers, it’s neither appealing nor revolting. It’s “intermediately pleasant”. People almost trip over themselves to describe it in non-descript terms—“fragrant”, “chemical” and “perfumery”.

Laurax isn’t going to set the perfume world ablaze in the near future, but its scientific implications are fascinating. This bizarre scent is actually a set of completely different fragrances that all smell roughly the same. It’s the odour version of “white”.

— Read more at The smell of white – mixtures of many distinct scents end up smelling the same at Discover Magazine.

Richard somebody of Abe Books talks about the smell of old books, and research done on the components that make up that particular odor. You can read more about the research at this 2009 article in the Guardian. Hat tip to Sondra!

But the raters predicted the donor's level of extroversion and neuroticism through smell about as accurately as participants in a different study predicted personality traits based on a video depicting a person's behavior, Sorokowska said. Judgments of dominance were most accurate in the case where an individual rater was assessing the odor of someone who was the opposite sex, suggesting such judgments are especially important when it comes to choosing a mate, the researchers said.

— Another "smell this sweaty t-shirt" study. Read more at Some Personality Traits Affect How You Smell at Live Science. Hat tip to Erin!

Millions of receptors in the nose's smelling organ aren't scattered at random, a new study says. Instead, the receptors congregate in tiny hot spots that help the brain discern good smells from bad ones, among other potential functions.

— Read more at Secrets of Smell: Different Nose Parts for Stinky, Sweet at National Geographic.