Scientists know little about our sense of smell compared to other senses like vision and hearing, in part because it is not critical for survival and because the misconception that humans are “bad smellers” has permeated academia for more than a century.
But recent efforts are attempting to systematically characterize molecular scents, and others are working to uncover how the brain processes and interprets information about smells, part of an emotional and memory system.
These new studies are revealing a more important role for olfaction than previously thought, as smell is tied to emotion and memory and has deep evolutionary roots billions of years old.
Scientists are trying to create an artificial intelligence tool that can smell as well as humans and are considering digitizing olfaction to help people smell again or to detect scents that might not be perceptible to humans.
