Here’s a fascinating bit of technology that may someday allow you to actually “record” odors as easily as recording sounds.
Engineers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have created a device that captures odors, analyzes them, and then reproduces them using a mixture of 96 different chemicals. In this system, computers quickly do the same work that trained perfumers (the scientists who create fragrances) have taken decades of training to master. Reportedly, they’ve reliably reproduced odors such as orange, lemon, banana, and melon. The perfumers might not agree that the quality of the reproduced odor is as good but it’s a start. Someday you may be able to reproduce any fragrance you want in your own home. Of course, it’s a year later and no product is on sale yet. Maybe the engineers have hit a snag.
Incidentally, the story was first reported in New Scientist. I read it first in Chemical & Engineering News where every good card carrying member of the American Chemical Society should get their chemistry news. One more thing, while I wrote this, I was listening to that Fergie tune, “Big Girls Don’t Cry“. I like that song.
-Mid Brain
If you could record any smell you wanted to (ANY smell!) what would you want to save? The smell of your favorite childhood candy? The scent of your Grandma’s perfume? A whiff of a sweaty old boyfriend? Leave a comment and let the rest of the Beauty Brains community have a sniff!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I would love to have recordings of the smells of my daughters when they were babies. Their smells were delicious, intoxicating. The smell of my 7-year-old’s hair after playing outside: fresh air and her natural smell.
I’d LOVE to have a recording the way my husband smells after he has taken a shower so I can put it in the CD player in the car after he has worn his nasty gross hockey goalie gear and we would have a nice smell home. Hockey funk is the WORST…especially goalie funk…ugh
Personally, I like the articles in the New Scientist than the one that was in the American Chemical Society. I wonder if they can make a recording of an L.A. traffic jam and them pump it into movie theater during a car chase.