The Science Of Smell – Smarter Smell – As a highly underrated member of the five senses, your sense of smell has a powerful effect on many of your brain functions. Any smell you inhale affects your limbic system, which regulates the processes of emotion, motivation, fear and pleasure, including the hippocampus and amygdala, all three of which influence learning and memory. According to the US National Library of Medicine, “Imaging studies in humans help demonstrate the effects of odors on the limbic system and its emotional pathways.” That means they can actually see the smells that affect humans through brain scans.
According to PubMed, “Aromatherapy uses aromatic plant substances and plant oils, including essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering mood, cognitive, psychological, or physical well-being.” It is currently being studied as a natural treatment for stress, anxiety, and even symptom management in cancer patients.
The Science Of Smell
If you’re not familiar with essential oils and aromatherapy, or you want a quick refresher, read this. It explains what essential oils are and how to determine whether they are high or low quality. (The better the quality, the better the results you’ll get.) Now that you know all that, let’s get to the good stuff.
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First, I’ll give you the science, then I’ll give you some quick and easy tips so you can start smelling up your office (ha-ha).
Our pure fragrance oil is free from synthetic toxins and volatile organic compounds, which means it can be distributed in public spaces without public consent because it cannot cause allergic reactions in humans or pets….I really hate cucumbers. Throughout my life, this revelation has been met by shocked faces and people saying ‘but it doesn’t feel like anything’. My response is always the same: ‘it impacts me’. That didn’t happen until I read it
So I understand how this fruit can be so disgusting to me and also harmless to others: humans have two receptors that detect the volatile molecules in cucumbers, and in people like me, one of these receptors is more sensitive than usual and recognizes the smell as something rancid.
Paolo Pelosi takes his readers on a journey through an imaginary city, where different streets are identified by different types of odor molecules, as he tries to map the olfactory system. Head down one street and you’ll find terpenoids, which are responsible for the fresh aroma of many plants; in others you will find phenol with a recognizable disinfectant odor.
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Pelosi’s knowledge of the olfactory system and all its intricacies is extraordinary, and her interest in this area of biochemistry is evident on every page of her book, whether she is explaining how smell molecules fit into their specific receptors, or the trials and tribulations she has experienced. research career.
It has to be said that this is a complex and somewhat heavy topic, and although Pelosi does her best to break it down into manageable chunks, there were times when I got lost in all the lists of chemical names and associated smells. Luckily this is often broken down into more interesting anecdotes, such as female rats licking urine left by male rats to identify potential mates from the volatile compounds in this chemical message.
If you’re interested in molecules that act as aphrodisiacs for pigs, how ants and other social insects use pheromones to organize their societies, and how our brains convert those chemicals into the smells we perceive,
Certainly packed with everything you could ever want to know, not to mention a few things you might not know! Let’s understand the aroma of wine through the science behind it. As it turns out, subtle notes of fruit, flowers and ‘minerality’ help us deconstruct wine.
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Behind the countless flavors we breathe is a molecule. This substance enters your nose, affects your olfactory receptors, and produces signals to your brain that tell us things like, “I smell strawberries!”
These molecules are small groups of carbon atoms produced during grape ripening, alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, and wine aging. We can divide aromas into 3 types:
By the way, enologist and researcher Dr. Luigi Moio provides an interesting and clear explanation of the origin of the aroma of wine in his book “The Breath of Wine” (
The varietal aroma occurs through the metabolism of the grape plant as the grapes ripen. We believe this technique was created as a survival technique: to make the grapes more attractive to animals to eat and disperse the seeds.
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For example, the ancient grape variety Moscato Bianco is particularly high in a group of compounds called monoterpenes. Therefore, ripe grapes smell very sweet and flowery at harvest.
You can’t feel any particular primary scent. This is because they are bound to other, larger compounds, preventing them from evaporating (and floating up to our noses).
If you think this is bad, think twice! If all the aromas can be felt immediately, the wine will have a very strong aroma in a very short time. Luckily, the hidden fragrance came out slowly as time went by. Dr. Moio believes this gives the wine a long shelf life and is the secret to why Alsatian wines become more aromatic with age!
During alcoholic fermentation, a yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae converts grape sugar into carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol. But He did more than just that!
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Yeast cells are tiny chemical laboratories that produce a wide variety of molecules including esters. Esters are very strong after fermentation and can smell like apples, tropical fruit, or even red berries. (try Beaujolais Nouveau to learn about esters!)
Additionally, the tiny bacteria that carry out malolactic fermentation (which softens the acids in the wine) give off buttery, roasted, nutty and even spicy aromas.
Aging the wine in tanks, barrels, or bottles causes its own bouquet. There are three mechanisms that create this bouquet: chemical reactions, oxidation, and wood flavor.
The molecules form when chemicals in wine react with each other to form new molecules. For example, alcohols and acids interact to produce esters. This chemical reaction occurs when the wine is in a tank or bottle and protected from oxygen.
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When wine ages in terracotta or wooden tanks, it undergoes microoxidation which can produce compounds such as acetaldehyde (acetaldehyde).
For example, wines such as Sherry or Madeira, are exposed to oxygen directly and develop flavors such as dried fruit, nuts and caramelized sugar.
Wood releases aromatic compounds into the wine. Of course, each species of oak or chestnut used in winemaking provides a different flavor. In addition, the geographical origin of the wood and barrel roasting (thermal treatment) also influences the taste.
There is a dizzying variety of flavors found in wine even if it is just an old vintage. Of course, now we know how the combination of grapes, fermentation, and aging produces countless flavors.
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After reading some of the often difficult to pronounce chemical names of wine aroma molecules, it’s understandable why sommeliers prefer to stick to fragrance libraries that we can understand!
Born in Asti, Piedmont, Italy, I started working in the wine industry in 2001 and I recently completed Doctoral studies in Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2015 I started an experimental project of “traditional method” sparkling wine production in Israel from unconventional grape varieties. When studying the five senses, there are some great smell activities, but you probably don’t want to do too many in one day. I personally feel very dizzy if exposed to too many scents in a short period of time, especially essential oils and artificial scents.
Fragrance bottle: First, you need an airtight container: you can use a condiment bottle from the dollar store where they have to open the lid to smell (a small motor challenge for some people), or a ziplock bag, or a yogurt container with a slit cut out. the lid (kids can press the sides and flavored air will billow through the gaps in the lid), or two cups glued together with a hole in the bottom.
In our class, we use condiment bottles that are sorted into palatable and unpalatable, and have four dixie cups where they are asked to guess what is inside (toothpaste, pickles, cleaning rags, and dog food).
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Artificial fragrances: Bring a variety of items with artificial fragrances. Does it smell like it should? If something smells like food, does that mean it’s edible? If the candy is banana flavored, yes. But, if it’s lip balm, or markers, or scratch and sniff stickers, no matter how fragrant the strawberries are, that doesn’t mean they’re good to eat!
It smells bad! Interesting activities to do are things that smell bad: sour milk, overripe fruit, permanent markers that smell, sulfur, “natural gas smell” cards sent by the gas company, household chemicals that smell bad… . make sure all the aromas are safe to inhale! Children can smell it, and then talk about how unpleasant odors can be a sign to us that there is something unhealthy around us. The challenge in this activity is to ensure there is nothing harmful about the fragrance. You also want to be able to remove odors after activities and not let them linger indoors!
Scent Memories: We know that certain scents can be very powerful in evoking memories for us. I would love to come