At Bridge Farm Group in England’s Lincolnshire County, rows and rows of roses, petunias, and marigolds fill the company’s 60-acre glasshouse. About 90 million such plants will make their way to retailers across the UK—but not all of them will be sold. Now, researchers are figuring out how to turn the flowers that would otherwise go to waste into product fragrances, through a partnership between the grower, Unilever, and the University of Nottingham.

— Read more in The floral scent of your body wash is likely made from petrochemicals. This pilot is trying it with flowers instead at Fast Company.

“We can learn to associate good things with ‘bad’ smells – if you smell a really ripe cheese on the London underground, that’s going to smell disgusting. But in a nice shop or at home, that smells delicious. We learn to attribute certain positive attachments to smells.” For one museum exhibition about the Roman empire, [Tasha] Marks created the scent of the purple tunics worn by the elite. The dye, Tyrian purple, was made from the mucus of a sea snail, “so when it got slightly wet, it would smell like fish, and that became a sign of excellence. It’s a learned response – this is the smell of luxury, this means expensive.”

— Read more in ‘There’s otter poo, dragon poo …’ The woman who can make you smell everything, from hell to your grandparents at The Guardian.