[Eric] Holbrook, who is collaborating with the VCU team, is now trying to find a shortcut to stimulate the brain's olfactory bulb and then trigger a sensation of smell. Ultimately the researchers plan to create a device that will operate somewhat like a cochlear implant, an electronic device that partially restores hearing.

— A team from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School are trying to build a device that would restore olfaction. Read more at Building a Brain Implant for Smell at Scientific American.

Why do certain foods smell good to us?

New research by psychology professor Don Katz and his lab suggests it has a lot more to do with what happens in our mouths than commonly thought.

It turns out that we don’t inhale the scent of food and decide we like its smell. First, we have to eat it.

— Read more at Your mouth helps you smell tasty foods at Brandeis NOW.

Call it a genomic nosegay. Unlike a floral nosegay, which releases scents, the genomic nosegay—a 3D spatial arrangement of olfactory receptor genes—helps us recognize them. Varied 3D arrangements are so effective that they allow us to distinguish one trillion different scents even though we have just 400 dedicated olfactory receptor genes.

— Read more at Countless Scents ID’d by Varied 3D Arrangements of Relatively Few Genes at Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.