Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Volga bam here with a classic episode from our previous host, Christian Sager. We here generally approve of the cataloging and preservation of things, from films to recipes, to paintings, to traditional craft methods to bones, but some things are more ephemeral than others. Today's question
is how might researchers go about preserving smells? Hey, brain Stuff, it's Christian Sagar, pardon me, fragrances your book wearing researchers at University College London suggests that the nose knows get it. In an extensive study of smells, heritage and historic paper published in the journal Heritage Science, the authors argue the
importance of documenting and preserving smells, but why. The researchers realized that visitors at St. Paul's Cathedral, Dean and Chapter Library in London frequently comment on the aroma of the space, saying they feel like they can smell history now thanks to our limbic system. Odors can make us pretty emotional, especially when they evoke memories. Sense affect how we experience different cultures and places and help us gain more insight
into and engage more deeply with the past. Since smells are a part of our cultural heritage, the researchers posit they have historical value and deserve to be identified, analyzed, and archived using chemical analysis and sensory descriptions. The study authors set about figuring out a way for scientists and historians to do so. In one experiment, the researchers asked visitors at the historic library to characterize the odors they smelled.
More than seventy percent of respondents considered the library smell as pleasant. All the visitors thought it smelled woody, while eighty six percent noticed a smokey aroma. Earthy was seventy one and vanilla at fort were also descriptors visitors chose often. Other responses ranged from musty to pungent and floral to
rancid mmmm. In another experiment, the study authors analyzed the responses of seventy nine visitors to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in the United Kingdom to the smell of
a historic book from a second hand bookstore. To capture the book smell, a piece of sterile gauze was soaked in five milli leaders or point one seven ounces of an extract of the book Odor and placed in an unlabeled metal canister Scrooge shut to prevent visitors from peaking the top three responses when the visitors were prompted to describe the smell chocolate, coffee, and old. The team even analyzed the volatile organic compounds also known as v o
c s in the book and in the library. Most odors are composed of v o c s, or chemicals that evaporate at low temperatures. V o c s are often associated with certain smell types, like ascetic acid with sour, for instance. Using the data from the chemical analysis and visitors smell descriptions, the researchers created the Historic Book Odor Wheel to document an archive the Historic Library. Smell main categories such as sweet or spicy fill the inner circle
of the wheel. Descriptors such as caramel or biscuits fill the middle, and the chemical compounds likely to be the smelly source, like for for all, fill the outer circle. The researchers want the Book Odor Wheel to be an interdisciplinary tool that untrained noses can use to identify smells and the compounds causing them, which could address conservators concerns about material composition and degradation inform artifact paper conservation decisions,
and benefit Ola Factory Museum experiences. Today's episode was written by Shelley Dancy and produced by Dylan Fagan and Tyler Klang. For more on this and lots of other ripe topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts in my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows