WHAT IS THAT SMELL?

摘要

Jacek Koziel is a master of odours. On a pig farm in Iowa, he shows Erik Vance some of the peaks and troughs of life as a human detector. Hooking yourself up to Jacek Koziel's olfactometer is a little like having a photo album of your childhood shoved in your face. It can be offensive, sometimes painful, yet distinctly nostalgic. Seated in Koziels Iowa State University laboratory in Ames - with my eyes closed, and my ears covered by soundproof headphones to isolate the sense of smell - a glass cup over my nose delivers an olfactory slide show. The scents come at regular intervals. Some are strong, some less so. My job is to categorize them on a screen in front of me. For the untrained, identifying the odours is surprisingly hard. Most of the time I get a memory rather than a name. One has a hint of lemonade and summer afternoons. Another smells like summer camp. A third reminds me of a high-school girlfriend's lip gloss.