Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren boke obam here. If you're like me, you love
Speaker 1: the smell of old fashioned analog paper books, old books,
Speaker 1: new books, and researchers at University College London suggests that
Speaker 1: these scents aren't just nice, they're an important part of
Speaker 1: the human experience. In an extensive study of smells, heritage
Speaker 1: and historic paper published in the journal Heritage Science, the
Speaker 1: authors argue the importance of documenting and preserving smells, but why.
Speaker 1: The researchers realized that visitors at St. Paul's Cathedral, Dean
Speaker 1: and Chapter Library in London frequently comment on the aroma
Speaker 1: of the space, saying they feel like they can smell
Speaker 1: history thanks to our limbic system. Odors can make us
Speaker 1: pretty emotional, especially when they evoke memories. Sense affect how
Speaker 1: we experience different cultures and places and help us gain
Speaker 1: more insight into and engage more deeply with the past.
Speaker 1: The researchers posit that smells are part of our cultural
Speaker 1: heritage and have historical value and deserve to be identified, analyzed,
Speaker 1: and archived. Using chemical analysis and sensory descriptions, the study
Speaker 1: authors set about figuring out a way for scientists and
Speaker 1: historians to do so. In one experiment, the researchers asked
Speaker 1: visitors at the historic library to characterize the odors they smelled.
Speaker 1: More than seventy i respondents considered the library smell as pleasant.
Speaker 1: All of the visitors thought it smelled woody, while noticed
Speaker 1: a smokey aroma, reported an earthy scent, and forty one
Speaker 1: percent said they smelled vanilla. Other less frequent responses ranged
Speaker 1: from musty, too pungent, and floral to rancid. In another experiment,
Speaker 1: the study authors analyzed the responses of seventy nine visitors
Speaker 1: to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery UK to the
Speaker 1: smell of a historic book from a second hand bookstore.
Speaker 1: To capture the book smell, a piece of sterile gauze
Speaker 1: was soaked in five million leaders of an extract of
Speaker 1: the book odor and placed in an unlabeled metal canister
Speaker 1: screwed shut to prevent visitors from peaking. The top three
Speaker 1: responses when the visitors were prompted to describe the smell chocolate, coffee,
Speaker 1: and old. The team then analyzed the volatile organic compounds
Speaker 1: in the book and the library. Most odors are composed
Speaker 1: of these v o c s, which are chemicals that
Speaker 1: evaporate at low temperatures. VOCs are often associated with certain
Speaker 1: smell types, for example, acetic acid smells sour, isoamal acetate
Speaker 1: smells like bananas. Using the data from the chemical analysis
Speaker 1: and visitors smell descriptions, the researchers created the Historic Book
Speaker 1: Odor Wheel to document an archive the historic library smell.
Speaker 1: Main categories such as sweet or spicy fill the inner
Speaker 1: circle of the wheel. Descriptors such as caramel or biscuits
Speaker 1: fill the middle, and the chemical compounds likely to be
Speaker 1: the smelly source, like for furral, fill the outer circle.
Speaker 1: The researchers want the Book Odor Wheel to be an
Speaker 1: inter disciplinary tool that untrained noses can use to identify
Speaker 1: smells and the compounds causing them, which could address conservators
Speaker 1: concerns about material composition and degradation, inform artifact paper conservation decisions,
Speaker 1: and benefit olfactory museum experiences. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Shelley Dancy and produced by Tyler. Playing brain Stuff has
Speaker 1: merch Now you can get phone cases, tote bags, and
Speaker 1: of course t shirts. Every purchase helps keep the show
Speaker 1: going and supports us directly. You can find all that
Speaker 1: stuff at t public dot com slash brain stuff. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other evocative topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.