There's no sense so intimate—or mysterious—as smell. Unlike other senses smell is wired directly to the emotional centers in our brain. The reason for this remains obscure, but the setup gives odors an uncanny power to unlock hidden memories. Chemically, smell is enigmatic as well. Similarly shaped molecules can have quite different odors, and molecules that look nothing alike can smell almost the same. But thanks to an innovative new study, scientists have finally gotten some traction on olfaction, allowing them to match specific chemical features to specific odors for the first time.
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