Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren bog Obam here with another classic episode from our archives. Today we're talking about scent again, this time the complex scent of libraries and the complex science of cataloging and conserving the sense of places. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog
Obam Here. If you're like me, you love the smell of old fashioned analog paper books, old books, new books, and researchers at University College London suggests that these scents aren't just nice, they're an important part of the human experience. 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 arome of the space, saying they feel like they can smell history 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. The researchers posit that smells are part of our cultural heritage and 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 of the visitors thought it smelled woody, while noticed a smokey aroma. Sevent reported an earthy scent, and forty
one percent said they smelled vanilla. Other less frequent responses ranged from musty, too pungent, and floral to in sid In another experiment, the study authors analyzed the responses of seventy nine visitors to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery UK 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 of an extract of the book odor and placed in an unlabeled metal canister screwed 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 then analyzed the volatile organic compounds in the book and the library. Most odors are composed of these v o c s,
which are chemicals that evaporate at low temperatures. VOCs are often associated with certain smell types, for example, acetic acid smells sour, isoamal acetate smells like bananas. 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 ferral,
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 ole factory museum experiences. Today's episode is based on the article researchers create odor wheel that breaks down the smell of old books on
how stuffworks dot com, written by Shelley Danzy. Bring Stuff's production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clay. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.