The Guardian has a review of Luca Turin's recent book release, Secret of Scent:
...we swoop through a surreal, synaesthetic landscape, guided by the perfume industry's maverick Willy Wonka: 'Over the next hill now and into properly fruity territory, leaving the Brahmsian browns of damascones for the Mozartian colours of esters.' His topography of perfume is landmarked by allusion - to Miles Davis, the 'brown noise' of waterfalls piped into offices, the visual effect of varnish on old master canvases. It is an admirably sustained feat of evocation and if the cumulative effect is a little heady, there is real poetry here to stimulate our jaded perception.
Read the rest of the review here. More reading on Now Smell This: an interview with Luca Turin, Marcello's review of Secret of Scent.
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.
The last two books we’ve discussed (