We smell vibrations not shapes!.......Perfumery and Smell o Vision is to be shaken up

Luca Turin is arguably the world’s greatest sniffer and is the leading proponent of the vibration theory of olfaction. Traditionally the shape theory of olfaction; the theory where you are able to smell a molecule based on its shape, is the accepted theory amongst the olfaction community.

However this doesn't explain why twin molecules or stereo-isomers, that is molecules that are exactly the same in shape, smell differently. A spectroscope is a technological device that measures electron vibrations, and it is believed by Luca Turin that humans have one built into their noses to help us differentiate smells.

This theory can save the perfume industry millions of dollars. traditionally these companies would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to chemists to create molecules of a required shape and then assess if it smells as they hoped. Being able to predict how new synthetic molecules will smell or even using a computer to calculate the electron vibrations and find a match will save the industry heaps of time and money. What are the implications? well we can only expect prices to go down! In the world of smell o vision the costs for devices and scent cartridges are high enough. Perhaps we can use this technology to create a more accurate array of scents, perhaps this technology can be used to first create the scent more affordably on a computer?

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