Understanding how smell works is a bit like trying to fix a radio, with the premise that a) you have little knowledge of its components, and b) the darn thing didn't come with a wiring diagram. For seven decades, scientists have explored the various components of the olfactory system, and how they are connected to each other. But despite their hard work, the fundamental question has remained unanswered: how does our nose 'read' odorant molecules? Biochemist and perfume connoisseur Luca Turin thinks he cracked the code, and wrote a book about it: The Secret of Scent.
If you've read Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent (2003), you're familiar with the basics of Turin's theory of olfaction…
With the exception of a handful of bestselling novels, books about fragrance rarely appeal to audiences outside the perfume community, and seldom raise controversy among their readers. The opposite is true for