Mar 22 2025 - And the Smell Is

 

I heard this on the radio this week while in a store, perhaps Dollarama.  The question of the day was posed with some prize in store for the correct answer.  I looked it up online and found this: Happy Monday! Here is today's Nearly Impossible Question! from Cubby and Christine Mornings of 106.7 FM Q: 93% of people can recognize this smell in 1 second...what is it? A: Peanut butter The post was from 2023, so maybe they repeat these fun questions.   All kinds of interesting things relate to smell - asking the question about what can we all identify within 3 seconds brings a raft of "Smell Stories" A Reddit post goes like this: What is up with thrift store smell? Can anyone explain? It's a combination of sweat, oil, skin, and other things the human body might make, plus things like gasoline, car exhaust, food, perfume, and ...  Here's the Quora retrieval for the question: "There is a true story of a woman named Joy Milne who thought her husband suddenly smelled bad. She had him try bathing more, using cologne, deodorant… you name it, but he could not shake that musky smell. However, here is the funny thing, no one else could smell what she smelled on him. It wasn’t until 12 years later he was diagnosed with Parkinson's and she was introduced into a room of other patients that she noticed they all smelled of this musky smell. Her observation piqued the interest of scientists who decided to research what she could smell, and whether this could be harnessed to help identify people with the neurological condition. During the study, she was able to identify all the Parkinson patients by smell and only made one error where she identified a person in the control group as well. Funny enough, this person in the control group later developed Parkinson's. In 2019, researchers at the University of Manchester announced they had identified molecules linked to the disease found in skin swabs. The scientists have now developed a test using this information all thanks to Ms. Milne who could smell Pa"rkinson's disease when no one else could. So maybe you too have a heightened sense of smell. I went and verified the story so you can read about Joy's story HERE.  I guess smell is a topic now that Spring is here.  It is in the air  - the smell of moist earth, decayed leaves and witch hazel blossoms,  which have a rose scent.

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April 19 2024 -The Speed of Smell

 

What is the speed of smell?  How far can smell spread? This is prompted by a bizarre dream I had.  There we were when an alien space ship landed nearby, and then there was an overpowering acrid smell.  The smell spread around the world extremely quickly.  How could it spread so fast?  Was it a weapon or instrument of the aliens? Were we going to die from whatever made the smell?  The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second. The speed of sound is 761.2 miles per hour. If it was going the speed of light it would only take 0.13 seconds to go around the earth.  We wouldn't have time to ask the question if smell travelled as fast as light. In  comparison to light and sound there isn't a set speed to smell - the speed of smell is dependent on the odorous compounds that make up the air - we would ask how fast does air travel in the air?  Here is the article on the science behind the speed of smell. Let's jump to the fun comparison: "So then, let's use Graham's Law to compare the effusion rates of two odorous molecules, geraniol and skatole. Gerianol has a rose-like fragrance that is commonly used in perfumes, and it's naturally found in geraniums and lemons. Skatole is a somewhat toxic compound that occurs naturally in feces, and it's thought to be one of the main causes of odor in flatulence. Yes, in one of the most high-brow and intellectual thought experiments ever devised, I'm basically asking which odor, under ideal conditions, you would smell first: a rose or a fart? Gerianol is composed of ten carbon atoms, eighteen hydrogen atoms, and a single oxygen atom, which gives it a molar mass of 154.25 grams per mole. (A mole is a unit equivalent to about 6*10^23 individual molecules). Skatole, one the other hand, has nine carbon atoms, nine hydrogen atoms, and one nitrogen atom, which adds up to a molar mass of 131.17 grams per mole. Graham's Law says that the rate of gerianol effusion divided by the rate of skatole effusion will equal the square root of the molar mass of skatole divided by the molar mass of gerianol. In other words... This means that the rate of effusion of gerianol is about 92% that of the rate of effusion of skatole. In other words, the speed of smell of a fart is faster than the speed of smell of a rose. Admittedly, that's all one hell of a massive approximation, but that still seems like the sort of information that's just worth knowing" Let's ask the question:  how fast does a fart travel?  And the answer is 10 feet per second, or 6.8 miles per hour.  That's going to take a long time to get around the earth. Maybe that dream came about from this picture I took a few years ago. I was putting images through that Watercolour Filter the other day, and this delightful abstract came out. Starry sky sort of theme.

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Oct 1 2023 - Oud

 

I think most of us know the scent of Jasmine.  It is one of the top perfume ingredients.  I would have thought that rose is also.  And it shows up in various lists.  The lists have ingredients that are unknown to me.  Second on the list, for example, is this one: "Oud, referred to as liquid gold, is another expensive yet essential perfume ingredient. There is no in-between for the scent of oud - people either love it or hate it. The scent is derived from resin that results from fungus growth on the wood of the Aquilaria tree. Agarwood is another name for the resulting product with the distinct smell we know as oud. The oud scent is strong enough to influence other notes in a perfume. Fragrance experts take care in the selection of paired notes. Those who love oud find the smell to be irresistible and attractive with bittersweet and woody hints. The earthly tone is heady and sexy, meant for daring personalities. The longevity of the scent is dependent upon: type of oud resin used the duration of its aging the quantity used in a brand From an age-old perfume element in Arabic and Indian cultures, oud has made its way into the west as a high-demand item. Synthetic versions retain the woody and leathery qualities, yet the original smooth balsamic and warm touch of oud is only specific to the real ingredient." The fascinating list of perfume ingredients is HERE at the fragrances website. Thousands of years of work have gone into the making of such an extensive list and its underlying knowledge.    I wonder what fields of Jasmine would smell like.  These fields of roses are grown to be sold as plants and not harvested for their flowers.

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Sep 26 2023 - Autumn in the Air

 

I could never have predicted that Autumn in the Air would become the realm of Starbucks' Spiced Pumpkin Lattes.  Would you have guessed this?  What does Autumn bring to the air?  The smell of leaves, trees, and plants dying and rotting.  It is that slightly sharp, sweet smell. Unless you are under a Katsura tree and it is a strong sugary, sweet vanilla smell.   One article quotes an expert saying that the smell of leaves decaying is "a bit like chlorine or the exhaust of a dryer vent."  That's distinctive - we can give it a test in the next few weeks. What the cooler temperatures bring is a sense of "fresher" to us.  It makes the scent of decay stand out more clearly.  That's the specific and special smell of Fall.  That's it. There is much research on scent - it is a large component of the beauty industry.  But not here on the internet, where breezy, short, not much information "articles" hold the day.  Or autumn air fresheners tell you they are out of stock.  But persistence has led to an interesting person in the field of scent. Norwegian artist, chemist and smell scientist Sissel Tolaas was commissioned by the US’s Smithsonian Design Museum in 2016 to create a smell inspired by New York’s Central Park. So she did.  She has her own archive of smells.  Fascinated by humans’ complicated and often highly emotional relationship with the world of smell, she has even devised a “nose language” or “vocabulary of olfaction” that she calls Nasalo. It is based on an archive of more than 7,000 smells and 2,500 scent molecules that Tolaas has collected over the last 20 years. Housed in a lab in the artist’s Berlin studio, these are kept in hermetically sealed glass jars and aluminium boxes. Examples include everything from the smell of concrete and dusty brick to old graveyards, money and wet football.  Here's an article about her HERE.  And another more in-depth article HERE.  Wouldn't that be amazing to be able to experience all of these and distinguish them - the way we  do taste.  Smell has been left to chance for us. Here are some big-leaf Magnolia leaves.  These came from Longwood a number of years ago.  I will have to check out their smell this year - there's a garden nearby with a tree.

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Feb 8 2023 - Smells like Spring

 

It smells like Spring.  We're only at the beginning of February, so this is a fleeting experience.  When we smell soil, what we smell is bacteria.  And more specifically, Geosmin. Scientific America tells me this:  Two of the chemicals responsible for that earthy perfume are geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB). Geosmin is made by many organisms — including, unsurprisingly, beets — but particularly by bacteria in the genus Streptomyces.   Author Jennifer Frazer says: "One of the most exciting and unexpected discoveries I made in college occurred the day I opened a Petri dish of soil bacteria. There was no soil in the plate — just opaque patches of bacteria called colonies — but it smelled just like a cave. I had discovered that dirt doesn’t actually smell like dirt. It smells like bacteria." "Perfumiers have found geosmin an irresistible component of some of their concoctions, either as a purified commercially available product (as a 1% solution) or, as in the case of a more traditional potion, Mitti Attar, by distilling sun-baked earth with sandalwood (it is said to resemble the smell of the first monsoon rain on parched soil). For example, in the perfume The Smell of Weather Turning by the cosmetics company Lush, “geosmin is supported by oak wood, hay, beeswax, nettle, English peppermint, mint and Roman chamomile”.  What would you think if this perfume was on the retail shelf?  I would say that is true retail therapy.   I found some palm bark close-ups and gave this one a spring makeover.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

March 26 2020 - Losing Smell and Taste

I found out yesterday that one of the symptoms of the COVID-19 virus is losing one's sense of taste and smell.  Doctors are adding this to the list of screening tools. The condition of losing one's smell and taste is known as anosmia.  It can be caused by head injury, infection, or blockage of the nose.  Approximately 1 in 8 Americans over the age of 40 have this problem.  It is also known as smell blindness, or being 'nose blind'. When people have an absence of smell at birth, it often takes a few years before they realize the absence, and tell their parents. Smell and taste are considered a pleasure experience.  The absence of these mean the distinctions and differences of smell and flavours are lost.  This, according to one doctor: "When you lose your sense of smell, your whole sense of food flavor is distorted and diminished," Cowart says. "You can still taste the basic tastes which are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami or savory. What you're missing are the sort of subtle distinctions, the difference between strawberry and banana; between chocolate and vanilla." Smell and taste has a safety aspect: There are also the warning things that keep people safe.  Is the milk sour, is something burning on the stove, is there a gas leak?   There are other medical conditions involved in smell:  There is the partial loss of smell - hyposmia.  More serious to me is Paraosmia - the illusion or hallucination of a smell - usually a bad odour such as drains or faeces.   The medically therapeutic potential of aromas has been proven in scientific studies.   Papers have been published since the 1920's outlining the effects of essential oils on the nervous system, and their influences on moods and emotions.  In 1998, patients with advanced dementia were the subject of a controlled experiment using diffused lavender oil, and it was effective in improving 60 percent of patients' behaviour compared with the placebo.  Lavender is well-known as a relaxant, and bees have been observed to fall asleep in lavender plants.  The science of aroma-chology is dedicated to the study of the interrelationship between psychology and fragrance technology to elicit a variety of specific feelings and emotions. This seems to me to explain the many different smells we have in every day products - from cleaners, air fresheners, soaps, and skin care products to paper. There are so many synthetic fragrances that fragrance-free is a phrase that implies non-toxic living.  So as we move into Spring, we move into flowers - some fragrant some not, and definitely with a benefit of Emotional Value, as outlined below.

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Scentsation!

Scentsation is defined as an outstanding use of fragrance in applications other than perfume and cologne. It is said to be coined by PerfumeCulture as a scent and trend agency.  It has since made its way into the naming of flowers.  Here are a few. I mistakenly bought Honeysuckle "Scentsation."  It was a lucky error.  I thought I'd purchased Paul's Scarlett, but the blooms were not pink - they were yellow. I had thought I might have one of the invasive Japanese Honeysuckles.  Instead these were blossoms that lasted from mid-spring to late summer and has strong fragrance.  What are the notes in honeysuckle?  It is considered fruity and warm with hints of honey and ripe citrus.  There is a petunia that has been hybridized to have its fragrance back - just as roses lost and got back their beautiful scent via David Austin.  What is the fragrance in this blue Petunia "Evening Scentsation"?  It is described as having notes of hyacinth, sweet honey and rose and is stronger in the evening.  There is a series of miniature roses in the "Scentsational" series. "Overnight Scentsation" journeyed to space to aid in studies about the effects of low gravity on the smell of roses.  "Moonlight Sensation" is another one. What about finding the Camellia "Sweet Scentsation".  I would need to go to warmer areas of the U.S. for this. We know that Evening Scented Stock (Matthiola bicornis) is night-scented. It has a series named "Starlight Scentsation". This is a flower with strong notes of cloves and cinnamon. Others have nutmeg and vanilla scent. And there is a Tuberous Begonia that has the name Scentsation - it is a Blackmore & Langdon variety. Many of the scented begonias smell like roses. Many people don't realize the Cyclamen is a scented flower - they also have a Scentsation Series.  It isi considered light floral, clean, fresh, and slightly mysterious. And there is a Nicotiana alata mix "Scentsation" - it comes in pinks, purples and whites - that's interesting to me.  I will definitely find this one for this year's garden. The scent is considered similar to Jasmine. If we want to describe out floral scents, take a look at this website - theperfumeexpert.com/notes These window view pictures were taken at the Ringling Circus mansion.  All the windows have pale stained glass panes.