Smells to Blow Your Mind

all the five. It's the only one that interacts directly

with the brain. And and just imagine how boring the world would be without it, and and and also take into account that we really haven't studied it seriously scientifically until the last couple of decades, Like there was a but before that, if you were like, I'm going to scientifically study smell, I'm really interested in how things smell and what makes something stink, and what makes something smell good, and how something that could the same odor could sort

of smell good. If we thought of one thing and stink, if we thought it was the other people would laugh at you. They would say a ha, ha, why don't

you go study ghosts or something? Right? Right? Right? Did they ever think that there would be a whole industry that is uh built on smell, Like, for instance, if you go into the gap, if you go into that retailer, there is a specific smell that was created just for that store, keeping you the customer in mind, you know, sort of fresh light smell to try to manipulate your Yeah. It goes far beyond just the perfume industry or anything

of that nature. It gets into into what kind of smells do people react to, how to how to smells interact with our memories? Um, wine and then wine is a one smell appealed to say, one group of people and not to another. It just gets it gets crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And so today we're gonna talk about smells, but we're don't trying to talk about it in a little bit of an unorthodox way. And uh, I'm not lying here. We're gonna talk about David Beckham's foot at one point.

Oh yes, yeah, yeah, So so let's get into it all right. Well, a lot of this came from a panel that I attended at the at the World Science Festival in New York in June of two thousand eleven. We're both up there hitting various panels and this one was called Sense and Sensibilities, right, yes, take on, Jane Austen. Yeah,

and it was a really cool one. Like all of them barely got there in time, because it was like, you know, taking the train and then trying to figure out where I was supposed to go, and then using the phone to try and triangulate exactly where I was and where it was. It was very and as you were looking at the phone bumping into the building and realizing that was a building that you needed to hoof it into. Yeah, and uh, it was a great panel.

And one of the things they did they did a really interesting smell test where everybody had these different cards under their well, they weren't under the chair, but they were handed out to It was lightly It was just that if they were under the chair and each one has a number, and then you smell it and then they would vote to see what people thought the smell was. So um, I thought we might just run through these real quick. Okay, let's do it all right. So this

is we're going to count down from the top. This is number four, number four, and this is a little card. It has you gotta peel the plastic back. I can smell something kind of smells kind of good, but it's very faint langline. I don't know what that is. It's a it's a like a lily smell. Okay, so you can kind of a like a sweet plant kind of smell. From what is number four? Then I will have up to my nose. It is a Tahitian flower by the name of t R So there you go. You were

pretty close that I was gonna say Tahitian flower. Yeah, well it's it's frequently used in you know, kind of perfumey smells. Now number three mm hm, okay, this smells like it sounds good, but because it also smells like under arm plus like maybe a drier sheet. Oh that's that's very spot on because it's musk, which is of course musk, you know, musky odors, but musk is also

an important ingredient, very in soap products. That's funny. I felt like I should I say I like that, us I feel a little dirty and saying that I like this. That was my initial squeeze directed directly from a muskrat, and then the final one. This is number one, and this one is actually double wrapped, so you'll have to take it out of the plastic. Hey, if it's double wrap, it's probably pretty pungent, right, Well, that would seem to imply, oh goodness, yeah it is. It's still strong after so

many months. I mean, it's clearly smells like cheese, and it's like a very pungent cheese. I mean, I'm not gonna say it's cheddar, but it's it's strong. Yeah. This one was the most fun at this festival because people were throwing out various ideas from the audience, things of such as, it's under arm, it's its feet, it's uh, it's body odor, it's it's locker funk, it's and then other people are saying it's Lindburger, it's Swiss, it's uh, you know, it's it's some sort of weird pots, Robert,

what have I just put up to my nose? David Beckham's feet Apparently this was taking This smell was taken directly from David Beckham's foot funk and then made into a chemical form and then brushed under the all these little cards and then handed out to people attending this particular panel. Alright, So I mean I read about not necessarily this that you just put in my nose, but that his foot has been studied before. I didn't realize

that was quite a specimen. I mean, his molecules are they're they're just rumbling around my nose right now and touching your brain. I should really say. Yeah, I have to say it's a little bit disturbing, especially since I like cheese. Um, I really do. And that is that is the weird thing, Like the same smell in a different context. Um, at least cheese fans would be like, oh,

that smells delightful. There was a an art opening I was helping at here in town that my wife was organizing, and there was some cheese on hand, and so Bonnie was unwrapping it and getting ready on the table, and I was doing something else, like getting lighting or sound ready for the event, and I smelled this odor and I'm like, oh, my goodness, we're about to have this art event and a mouse has died in the wall.

What are we gonna do? It's like, I don't I don't know how to get back there and get it, Like clearly something has died. And then I found it out that knows this cheese and uh. And and then later we had some friends that were attending it who are big freendshophiles and really in cheese. They were like, oh, this smells great. Can we take it home and devour it? And we're like, yes, please, yes, please, please take the dead mouse home because it is is stinking up the space.

So different different circumstances, different ideas about where the smell is coming from, has a huge impact on whether it is a good smell or a bad smell. Different cultures, right, um, and there was a woman on this panel. Cecil told us, the Norwegian odor artist. Oh, yes, she was awesome. Yeah. I mean you know, by the way, this is all online, so you can go to World Science Festival put in sense s c e n T s s c n s e uh sense and sensibilities and you can see

some of this stuff. It's great. She is uh. They call her an udor provocateur, and she's really like a warrior for smell. In the same way that you hear a lot of parents arguing that okay, you should not let a child say that a food is yucky, or you should not say, oh, this taste bad in front of a child, Like she takes it even farther than we should not talk about things stinking or smelling bad.

And I kind of on the same boat when it comes to cheese, Like when I hear people talk about, who I'm gonna try a stinky cheese, I'm like, don't use that word. Use a different word for the thing that you like. Don't say stinky. Say it's a pungent, pungent, pungent I like, or fragrant, expressive cheese, but don't say stinky. And that was one of the things she was talking about.

It's like, we have to, you know, we have to bring up a new generation that has a more nuanced way of talking about smell, because for a lot of people, it's just like, oh, that's a good smell, and that's a bad smell. And it's a lot more complicated than that. Yeah, And that's kind of what put her on her whole journey. She said to herself, can I think beyond the dichotomies of good and bad sense? And she certainly has plumbed

the subject to like he has broken the other side. Yeah, she makes me think of the guy um who who the Kloica machine who who is very interested in feces and his exploration of this in our relationship to this, this smell, this, this this material, and she does it the same way with smell um and really forces you to think about the topic. Yeah. Yeah, but it's so, it's very it's very very interesting that she dived into this, And I wanted to mention a couple of things that

that make that even more intriguing. Um, And that's considering what's actually happening to your inside your nose when you are sensing a smell um. Like you said, it's the only sense with a direct connection to the brain. So when you breathe chemicals into your nose, you have proteins that bind to millions of molecules, and these molecules rush into your nose and they get really cozy with the

nerve endings of your brains. With factory bulb and you have four hundred receptors trying to suss out the different smells um. So say you're walking down the street in New York early on the sunny morning in July, You're gonna be bombarded with a bunch of different smells. Yes, it is a city of amazing stinks. For sure. It is it is um or. You know, the day before garbage pickup, right, it's it's um or. You go past a pizza parlor and your your brain is trying to

make sense of all this old factory input. So um, it's it's very interesting when you think about it that way. UM. And we think about vision is being really complex, but when we're talking about vision or something like color blindness, really you're talking about three primary colors that you're perceiving. But when you're talking about smells, you're talking about fifteen thousand identifiable smells that are out there so far. Right, Like you said, this is a pretty young field, the

field of smells. And as we walk around, we're all carrying around this database of of smells with us. Um Like, not only the smells that we recognize in our in our mind, because I think we've all had that situation where we're walking down the street and with a different smell will hit us out of nowhere, and suddenly we're transported back to our childhood or something, right, and and sometimes we're not even sure what that odor was. It's not like, oh, the smell of fresh peaches that it

takes me back. I don't know why. I know you had. All Italians are talking about peaches, but but I'm thinking about New York streets. I guess I don't know, but but more like you like, for me, it's like a smell will hit me and I it will be an unclassifiable smell, like I'm not sure what that odor is, but it takes me back. But but so not only those the odors of memory, but also just the odors

on our person in our coat. Well. I was actually thinking about that a lot today because I'm wearing this vintage velvet jacket and it's one of my mom's curnies. Actually gave it to me, and it's really sweet, love it, but it has this Yeah, it's very shiny, and it has the scent of her perfume on it. It's clean, but obviously this is something that survived it and so I feel like I'm wearing the autobiography of someone else right now, and it's a little disconcerting. Um just to

every once in a while smell this scent. But this is one of the things that se sell To Lost the the odor artists really wanted to check out, and she did the us by analyzing a bunch of coats from the citizens and uh, I think it was the Montpelier, France. Yeah, she took their coats and analyzed it. Um. Basically, she used her her nose to try to figure out the different profiles of smell. And before anybody scoffed at that, this is actually, um, this is something that perfumers do

all the time. You can really train your nose to detect the most minute smell or so this is something that's real, by the way, and um ce cel Tolass is like she's a giant in her field, so she's pretty well respected. And she actually has created sense for product Um, Calvin Klein and all sorts of other people, so she knows what she's talking about here. Um. But anyway, she has also just another little interesting fact about her.

She has a smell archive preserved in seven thousand, six hundred and thirty air tight jars which feature dirty fabric, chunks of fried fish or dried fish, rotten bananas, a hundred and fifty variations on dog poo, and her favorite aroma that of her thirteen year old daughter, which I thought was really cool. So anyway, this this expert on odor takes these coats and analyzes them and what does she find, Well that there's a complex bouquet going on there.

Right in the term that bouquet, there's some top notes and there are some bottom notes for sure. Yeah, like there's a certain amount of like fecal odor. Yeah, yeah, there was. There was one product coat that was analyzed and had two percent dog feces, five percent soy sauce, six percent gasoline smell, nine percent Jill Sander after shave. By the way, this aftershave was not the after shave

of her husband. It was of someone else. Um ten percent codfish, twelve percent channel number five, which is the scent she wore, and twenty six percent tobacco sweat. Wow, where is the cod fish coming from? I mean, she must have just had a little codfish for for lunch before she gave her codo her or they had one of those freak days where like rained cod. Yes, yeah, that was probably one of those days. Ye frogs the

day before than cod. But yeah, all this stuff is in our clothes and we're walking around and we think that we're so clean, especially here, you know, in the

United States, where we're obsessed with sanitizing ourselves and covering up. Well, yeah, because I'm clean is an interesting topic just in and of itself, because we over time have taken idea of hygiene and the idea of spiritual purity and and intertwined the two to the point where in many cultures there's just no pulling them apart again, right right, So, I mean it's just and she will say, uh, this artist that the West is way too obsessed with sanitizing and

we should get a little bit more comfortable with the different smells that we have, like the smell of fear, which we will talk about right after this. This podcast is brought to you by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow and the Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe curiosity is the spark which drives innovation. Join us a curiosity dot

com and explore the answers to life's questions. So the smell of fear and this this really this boils down to to some of the you know, a lot of what we can discuss about the evolution of our sense of smell in where a place. Because if you can smell fear, and you hear that a lot, it's like, don't mess with that guy. He can smell fear. Don't

be weird around this dog. It can smell fear. The idea that that we're emitting some sort of odor, be that just a some be it just sort of a body funk or an actual pheromone that says, I am afraid, right, I am on edge and a little terrified. Uh. It's it's a fascinating concept because you would not want to

emit that odor. You would want to admit the I'm pretty awesome and could beat up a dog kind of right, right right, Because again here we have with these molecules being sucked up by our noses, and we are detecting all of this on a very subtle level, which which again this the odor artist is um using this to try to explore, you know, all these different happenstances of

our humanity, like fear. So cecil to lost the artists we were talking about, she also went after this whole fear smell thing, and she ended up this is two thousand six. Shed analyzed all these different examples of men in a state of fear. These these were men, by the way, who had chronic states of fear. Right, It wasn't just like every once a while they were scared,

but for various reasons. They were under dress. Yeah, you know, maybe they were a veteran or something, and they were able to, you know, summon this sphere for the experiment, and they took samples from their their under arms. And in this in two thousand six, Cecil covered the walls of an M. I. T. Gallery with and I mean officially not you know, she didn't go in there, just do it after the lights were out. She had she

had an exhibit. Yeah, imagine like basically imagine walking into an exhibit hall and it looks like all the paintings are gone and you're like, oh, I'm kind of bummed out. I came here for an art show. And then you is no, instead of going up and looking at a painting, you're going up to that blank canvas and you're sniffing.

That's right, because this wall is a metaphor for the skin, right, And she's basically she's chemically reproduced the molecules from the sweat of these men that she studied who were suffering fear. And and you're going up and you're getting to smell

different variations on that odor. And she she mentioned that there was one individual who had who had been in the war and uh, and he was smelling like an Asian um fear odor and the dye was like brought to tears because he was like, this really takes me back to this guy who during the war. Is that amazing? It is amazing? Yeah, yeah, um. And and how she did this as pretty interesting too. She used micro encapsulation technology to produce a gloss paint that releases its scent

when gently touched. Scratch and sniff, yeah, scratch and stiff wall of fear basically, so you have these nine different smells of fear, you know, from these nine different men and uh, and all of these guys, like you said that they collected their sweat during um when they were under duress. And one of them actually was a guy who engaged in s and M and so he collected his perspiration when he visited sex clubs. So he's he's he has a fearful odor emitting from this upright, because

I mean that's part of his um. I mean, yes, he was aroused, but it's he has to experience fear in order to be aroused. So they were collecting that. So again that's what we're talking about, like very different situations,

but all of them fear based. Yeah, and so can you imagine you're just kind of scratching and sniffing around this wall and you're getting these different profiles of smell, and like you said, the guy that that perceived his friend in this one smell who wasn't obviously his friend

is pretty amazing. Yeah, it kind of boils down to two to some of the stuff we've talked about about how their stuff going on in our brain, we're not conscious off like a lot of stuff under the surface of the waves of human cognition, and and certainly the processing of smells is just another one of those things. Always. I was just thinking about that too, like how we arrive at an idea and we keep thinking we have these aha moments, when in fact we talked about this before,

like do we actually have free will? But it's all being Our perception is being colored all the time, and these ah ha moments rise to the surface after they've been vetted um in so many different subconscious ways, like you said, like smells. So again, like we discussed the towards the top of the podcast, funky Smell, if we pair that with a picture of a foot, were repulsed pair it with a picture of you know, a fancy um hard or soft cheese, and we're more likely to salivate,

right right, scratch us. If a wall, we're scared. Um. But yeah, I mean it is all in the way that it's uh, it's packaged. And again you have the odor artists responsible for making something called human bacteria cheese, which brings the two together into one product. The fear in the fear and then the attraction to cheese, and here it is in one product. Yeah, yeah, I think it's fascinating. She wanted to know what happens when I grow an edible substance from my own body, uh bacteria

and then eat it. Yeah yeah, So again she this fascination with smell that she in bacteria. Um. She decided that this body bacteria would be the ideal organism uh to carry a smelly bacterium closely related to human armpits and feet. She took working samples, She collected them from friends and family, and then she simulated and coagulated them into a range of ripe taste sensations like Daisy's armpit, Philosopher's toe, Chris Christina's hand, and Sile's foot. Well, if

I had to go for one hour ago for Philosopher's toe. Yeah, I know that sounds like it could be uh nutty, mild with a surprising end. Yeah, and there's a great foot in mouth kind of metaphor going oh yeah, yes, yes, nice nice um. But and you know you had we talked about David Beckham's foot before, and it turns out that I don't think she actually grew any cheese from his samples, but she could, that's the the amusing thing.

She could, she absolutely could. But it turns out that his particular odor has the chemical construction most similar to a Belgian Limburger cheese. So there, So if you want to partake in in our reaction to David Beckham's foot, just go find a nice lumburger and give it a whiff. There you go, There you go. That's that's what we were smelling. But it really is an interesting idea that, you know, if you get very hard up for a food source, you could actually sort of grow your own

cheese from your body. Right. Well, I met a hippie girl once who had made mead like the alcoholic beverage that the old ale like the old Ale a medieval stuff and she had used like under her own under armed funk too to like kick started. So well that is artists and crafted mead right there. I mean I can't argue against that. I did not try it, but um, it existed, so I'm sure it probably was delicious. Who knows, Yeah, I guess. I mean it just comes down to the

whole How do we semantically categorized something. How do we distance something from its source. It's like I did a blog postal wall back titled U all water has been pooped in or something of that effect what I titled it. But basically the argument is, at some point in the fact pass any water that we drink has been foul like it is, it is probably fallen out of a

dinosaur's cloak at some point in the path. Well yeah, yeah, and and but we don't really think about that because it's it's transferred through nature, it's gone down a stream, and then here it is. It's so it's fresh water. Well, companies and government will say to Okay, yeah, they're not gonna call it sewer treated water, but they're gonna say, ah, it was um, you know, it was filtered through this underground compartment in which you know, and then charcoal blah

blah blah. So again there's the semantic distancing and this idea of well, it may have had urine in at one point, but by the time it reached you know, a mile out this way, it's fresh and pure, like you know, Rocky Mountain spring. Yeah. I mean you don't want to think about the fact when you go to a restaurant there maybe human skin cell flakes on your food. There are for sure, Yeah, I mean just it's just gonna happen. But but yeah, it's like we we it's like,

how do we interpret this smell? How do we interpret the source of something that is entering our lives or our bodies? Yeah, and I would be interested to know, like, Okay, given all this information about smell, has has this changed your perception at all about smell the things that that you detect? Um? You know it? Do you think it's as mood altering? Is it as some people say it is? Well? I think we all have our favorite since you know that really kick starts like you were talking about, like

coffee is an interesting one. Like there's a local coffee shop that I go to a lot to write, um called Joe's in case anyone wants to seek it out in Atlanta, I just don't bother me while I'm there, because I'm working. He's the guy with a blue shirt that says boards of Canada on it. Okay, yeah, yeah, I wear this every day. But I'll leave there smelling like coffee. And while i'm they're like the small coffee

is comforting. Occasionally they'll also be like a bomb that walks in it, like reeks of right guard for some reason. But but like sanitizing. Yeah, it's better than what lays beneath, right, but but any right, like, the smell of coffee for me is very comforting. It's like a very like oh it's it's coffee time. It's it's like a thought like personal creativity kind of a scent for me. But for you it's it's not a pleasant one, right, No, Because I used to smoke, and so I've spent all our

time um in coffee houses. Uh, not smoking clothes cigarettes, don't worry that wasn't doing that, but writing and smoking h And so every time I come home from a coffee shop and I smell that that coffee smell, I I immediately think of like headache, like past Um, I mean nothing like terribly nefarious, just just something that I don't enjoy doing anymore, and I don't enjoy smelling. There you go. I mean it's tied to memories, It's tied

to past experiences and expectations. So yeah, it's the proost effect, right. I can't help but but have some sort of memory, especially since that's what it stimulates. I mean, smells stimula, it's communication memory. Um, I'll part to your bringing that are connected to all right, Well, well there you go, sort of an intro to how mind blowing smell can be.

And in a future podcast episode, we're going to talk about the future of smell and how technology can and will enable us to manipulate this amazing Can we call it the fifth sense? I don't know. I don't know where it ranks in the numbers. I guess it depends on how they execute it. I'm calling it the fifth cent. How we can manipulate the fifth cent and uh and and use it to enhance products, which I think is

gonna be an exciting episode. But in the meantime, let us know what you think about the smells in your life, in this realm of scent that surrounds you like, like what, how does a favorite smell factor into your life? How does a least favorite smell? And where do you stand on the whole cheese foot situation. You can let us know by dropping by Facebook or Twitter. We are blow the mind on both of those, and certainly especially on the Facebook is it's just a great place to interact

with us, ask us questions, share things with other listeners. Uh, I really enjoyed. Yeah, we've had some great post front people out there. Um. So, Also, you can take a stab at creating a profile from your own jacket scent profile and you can send us what you think that is composed of uh, and you can email us at below the Mind at how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from

the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.