Author Nicola Twilley talks about the development of her scratch 'n sniff map of New York City, and about related things of interest to perfumistas: smell preferences by gender, race and geographical location, the dangers of selective anosmia, the lack of a shared language to describe smells, Sissel Tolaas' smell maps, etc etc. Almost 17 minutes; recorded earlier this month at the Gel conference ("An event about good experience – in art, business, technology, society, and life."). Hat tip to Rachel!
On all fours in a London park
Jess Porter and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have also been trying to train people's noses. They persuaded 32 students to wear blindfolds and ear defenders, and get down on all fours to see whether they could sniff out a trail of chocolate oil. Intrigued, I wanted to try it for myself, which is how I ended up on all fours in a London park.
— From The unsung sense: How smell rules your life in the New Scientist. Hat tip to Abyss!
Their own individual smells
You might think that identical twins have an advantage when it comes to crime—with the same DNA, who could tell them apart? But new research with a squad of scent-trained Czech police dogs reveals that even identical twins have their own individual smells, even if they live in the same house and eat the same food.
— Read more at Police Dogs Can Tell Identical Twins Apart By Scent at Discover magazine.
Thank your nose
If you like your big human brain, you can thank your nose — or at least the noses of your earliest mammal cousins.
That’s because 200 million years ago, a keen sense of smell drove an explosive growth in brain size that pushed mammals out from under the shadow of dinosaurs, a new study concludes.
— Read more at Mammals win by a nose: Sense of smell drove evolution of big brains at the Washington Post. Many thanks to nozknoz for the link!
Outsized sense of smell
World-class "noses" in the perfume and wine business are not born with an outsized sense of smell but acquire it through years of professional sniffing, according to new research.
In experiments with novice and veteran perfume makers, French scientists found that the ability to detect and identify hundreds, even thousands, of different odours depends almost entirely on rigorous training.
— Read more at Super sense of smell not innate at Yahoo News.