BrainStuff Classics: How Do Researchers Preserve Smells?

Scents affect how we experience different cultures and places, which means they have historical value. Learn how researchers are setting about preserving them in this classic episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Volga bam here with a classic
episode from our previous host, Christian Sager. We here generally
approve of the cataloging and preservation of things, from films
to recipes, to paintings, to traditional craft methods to bones,

(00:22):
but some things are more ephemeral than others. Today's question
is how might researchers go about preserving smells? Hey, brain Stuff,
it's Christian Sagar, pardon me, fragrances your book wearing researchers
at University College London suggests that the nose knows get it.

(00:42):
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 aroma of the space,

(01:06):
saying they feel like they can smell history now 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. Since smells

(01:26):
are a part of our cultural heritage, the researchers posit
they 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

(01:48):
visitors at the historic library to characterize the odors they smelled.
More than seventy percent of respondents considered the library smell
as pleasant. All the visitors thought it smelled woody, while
eighty six percent noticed a smokey aroma. Earthy was seventy
one and vanilla at fort were also descriptors visitors chose often.

(02:12):
Other responses ranged from musty to pungent and floral to
rancid mmmm. In another experiment, the study authors analyzed the
responses of seventy nine visitors to the Birmingham Museum and
Art Gallery in the United Kingdom to the smell of
a historic book from a second hand bookstore. To capture

(02:32):
the book smell, a piece of sterile gauze was soaked
in five milli leaders or point one seven ounces of
an extract of the book Odor and placed in an
unlabeled metal canister Scrooge 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 even

(02:58):
analyzed the volatile organic compounds also known as v o
c s in the book and in the library. Most
odors are composed of v o c s, or chemicals
that evaporate at low temperatures. V o c s are
often associated with certain smell types, like ascetic acid with sour,
for instance. Using the data from the chemical analysis and

(03:20):
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

(03:42):
smelly source, like for for all, 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,

(04:06):
and benefit Ola Factory Museum experiences. Today's episode was written
by Shelley Dancy and produced by Dylan Fagan and Tyler Klang.
For more on this and lots of other ripe topics,
is it how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is
production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts in my heart Radio,

(04:27):
visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
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