The history of smell in 18th-century England reveals the complex story of scent and personal space.
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Articles on Smell
Displaying 41 - 60 of 68 articles
Would you rather lose your sense of touch or your vision? Here are the pros and cons of each, according to science.
Our ability to smell is a function of the brain, so it makes sense that an impaired sense of smell can point to cognitive decline. The good news is training our noses may be effective.
The parts of the brain that get ‘smell signals’ from the nose also do other things, such as storing memories or provoking emotions. That is why some smells can bring back old memories.
Smelling odours that aren’t there can be annoying. It can also be a sign of a serious underlying condition.
A weather expert explains where petrichor – that pleasant, earthy scent that accompanies a storm’s first raindrops – comes from.
Compounds in your breath could help AI detect illnesses, including different cancers.
Perhaps you’ve noticed something unusual in the bathroom after you consume this healthy spring vegetable. A Speed Read explains there’s two parts to the stinky puzzle: production and perception.
Smell is the Cinderella of the senses in Anglophone literature, but James Joyce wrote an olfactory revolution. His treatment of the science of smell was astonishingly prescient.
Move over, dogs. The latest evidence suggests humans can match most other animals when it comes to smelling – and even outperform them for certain scents.
Studying odour memory is more than just an interesting diversion, it has practical uses too.
What’s the smell you associate with your childhood home? Or road-trips? Or fear? Conceptual artist Cat Jones has created the Scent of Sydney for the Sydney Festival, exploring the city in smells.
New research is narrowing the gap, creating technology with the detecting capabilities of canines but without the downsides of relying on a biological system.
‘Smell-free seas’ would be a disaster for marine life.
Honey bees are in decline and the current method of keeping them can be disruptive to a colony. But new designs allow beekeepers to monitor a hive remotely, even sniff out disease and pests.
The question of whether your reaction to asparagus is down to your stomach or your nose is a 300-year-old mystery.
The smell of death is easily recognised but not fully understood. Identifying the compounds behind it could lead to a number of improvements in forensics, including better trained cadaver dogs.
The science about our special senses - vision, smell, hearing and taste - offers fascinating and unique perspectives on our evolution. Yet it remains patchy; we know surprisingly little for example about…
New research couldn’t find evidence for a controversial theory of how our sense of smell works.
Are you one of those people who can smell when the rain is coming? Ever wondered then what you’re actually smelling?
Top contributors
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Professor of Rhinology and Olfactology, University of East Anglia
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Associate Professor, Flavour Chemistry, University of Reading
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Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University
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Professor of Psychology, University of Stirling
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Discovery Early Career Research Fellow, University of Sydney
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Professor of Food Science, Penn State
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Professor of Pervasive Computing, City, University of London
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Lecturer, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
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Professor of Conservation Biology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney
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Principal Enterprise Fellow in Forensic Anthropology, University of Huddersfield
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Lead for Evidence-Based Medicine and Nutrition, Aston Medical School, Aston University
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Communication Advisor, CSIRO
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Senior Lecturer- School of Biomedical Sciences and Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland
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Research Associate, Southern Cross University
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Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry, University of Hull
