Scientists cannot yet predict a chemical’s smell simply from its molecular shape, explains lead author Dietmar Krautwurst, a molecular cell biologist at the Technical University of Munich. For example, the chemical responsible for caramel scent, called furaneol, has also been described as smelling like strawberries or cotton candy. But just a tiny tweak in the chemical structure makes it recognizable by a different receptor, giving it a savory and herby scent instead, Krautwurst says.

— Read more in How We Detect Caramel Candy Scent at Scientific American.

Before COVID, Datta says, “It was hard to get many people—some scientists included—to pay attention to smell as a legitimate wedge that one might use to understand the brain. And I think that’s really changed now.” For researchers like him and [Venkatesh] Murthy, the fresh urgency directed at their field is an unfamiliar feeling, but a galvanizing one. “I’m excited to begin to think more about the underlying problem of smell itself,” Datta says. Murthy foresees a renaissance in olfaction research. Lately he’s been contemplating how breathing and smelling might intertwine neurologically.

— Sandeep Robert Datta is professor of neurobiology at Harvard. Read more in The Mystery of Smell: COVID-19 shines a spotlight on a once-obscure field of science at Harvard Magazine.