Mapping Weird Stuff

“Smell is a “chemical” sense (like taste). Unlike taste, there are hundreds of olfactory receptors, each binding to a particular molecular feature. Odor molecules possess a variety of features and thus excite specific receptors more or less strongly. This combination of excitatory signals from different receptors makes up what we perceive as the molecule’s smell.” (source)

Ohio Wesleyan’s Smellscape

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Columbus’s Smellscape (from Columbus Dispatch)

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Doughnut Smellscape (Esther Wu)

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Resources:

• Smell Vocabulary (PDF)
• How to Describe a Smell (WikiHow)