From a salty breeze to the stench of sewage, here’s how smell affects our ocean experience and reflects changing seas

Smellscapes of the sea are multi-layered - they are shaped by interactions between water, marine life and environmental conditions.

Jieling Xiao, Reader in Architecture and Sensory Environments, School of Architecture and Design, Birmingham City University • conversation
Oct. 23, 2024 • ~8 min

Will your phone one day let you smell as well as see and hear what’s on the other end of a call?

Phones that transmit odors sound like science fiction, but researchers are working on making them real.

Jian Liu, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee • conversation
Sept. 16, 2024 • ~5 min

Even mild cases of COVID-19 can leave a mark on the brain, such as reductions in gray matter – a neuroscientist explains emerging research

New research offers insights into the brain after COVID-19 that may have implications for our understanding of long COVID-19 and how the disease affects our senses of taste and smell.

Jessica Bernard, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University • conversation
March 7, 2022 • ~9 min

From odor to action – how smells are processed in the brain and influence behavior

Understanding how the brain translates smells into behavior change can help advance search and rescue technology and treatments for neurological conditions.

Nathan Urban, Provost and Senior Vice President, Lehigh University • conversation
Jan. 25, 2022 • ~11 min

The 2021 Nobel Prize for medicine helps unravel mysteries about how the body senses temperature and pressure

The joint award recognizes the long road to deciphering the biology behind the brain’s ability to sense its surroundings – work that paves the way for a number of medical and biological breakthroughs.

Steven D. Munger, Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Florida • conversation
Oct. 5, 2021 • ~9 min

Preliminary research finds that even mild cases of COVID-19 leave a mark on the brain – but it's not yet clear how long it lasts

Reduced brain volume in people who have experienced COVID-19 resembles brain changes typically seen in older adults. The implications of these findings are not yet clear.

Jessica Bernard, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University • conversation
Sept. 24, 2021 • ~8 min

Your dog's nose knows no bounds – and neither does its love for you

Dogs process the sensory world very differently than humans, but love in a way that is entirely familiar.

Ellen Furlong, Associate Professor of Psychology, Illinois Wesleyan University • conversation
Oct. 26, 2020 • ~6 min

Synthetic odors created by activating brain cells help neuroscientists understand how smell works

Brains recognize a smell based on which cells fire, in what order – the same way you recognize a song based on its pattern of notes. How much can you change the 'tune' and still know the smell?

Edmund Chong, Ph.D. Student in Neuroscience, New York University • conversation
July 8, 2020 • ~8 min

What makes something smell good or bad?

Mmmmmmm. That smells delicious. Wait, how do you know that?

Weihong Lin, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County • conversation
June 1, 2020 • ~5 min

Sudden loss of smell – why it is a reason to self-isolate

There is abundant evidence that a sudden loss of smell is related to COVID-19.

Tristram Wyatt, Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford • conversation
May 18, 2020 • ~6 min

/

2