The Forgotten Sense

"The Forgotten Sense leaves us with the hope of new discoveries and new recoveries-so that we may once again revel in the glorious, fragrant world around us."-Wall Street Journal

By one of the world's leading researchers into the science of smell, a fascinating exploration of our most essential yet least understood sense-enabling us to appreciate food and drink, warning us of dangers, and even influencing who we fall in love with

Our sense of smell guides our lives far more than our screen-heavy, sight-privileged era would suggest. It animates our experience of food and drink, helps us access memories, and strengthens our intimacy with each other. But, long considered our most "beastly" sense, the inner workings of smell have stumped scientists for centuries.

Now, cognitive scientist and leading smell researcher Jonas Olofsson uncovers the sophisticated processes that drive our olfactory system, with profound implications for how we perceive the world around us. Drawing from cutting-edge original research, Olofsson shows that not only is our sense of smell extraordinarily sensitive, its process of chemical exchange shaped human evolution on its most fundamental level.

From the pheromones, environmental signals, and emotions we process with each breath, olfaction makes us the individuals we are. Moreover, smelling is an intellectual exercise, Olofsson argues, one that we have the remarkable capacity to strengthen and, with some effort, even regain after illness.

With infectious curiosity and a host of applications-from emotional health and gastronomy to literature and even politics-The Forgotten Sense is a wide-ranging and entertaining look at this most understudied function of human life.

Autorentext

Jonas Olofsson is a professor of psychology at Stockholm University, where he directs the Sensory Cognitive Interaction Lab. He has conducted research at the New York University School of Medicine, Northwestern University, the Scripps Research Institute, and the Karolinska Institute. He lives in Stockholm.

Klappentext

“The Forgotten Sense leaves us with the hope of new discoveries and new recoveries—so that we may once again revel in the glorious, fragrant world around us.”—Wall Street Journal

By one of the world’s leading researchers into the science of smell, a fascinating exploration of our most essential yet least understood sense—enabling us to appreciate food and drink, warning us of dangers, and even influencing who we fall in love with

Our sense of smell guides our lives far more than our screen-heavy, sight-privileged era would suggest. It animates our experience of food and drink, helps us access memories, and strengthens our intimacy with each other. But, long considered our most “beastly” sense, the inner workings of smell have stumped scientists for centuries.

Now, cognitive scientist and leading smell researcher Jonas Olofsson uncovers the sophisticated processes that drive our olfactory system, with profound implications for how we perceive the world around us. Drawing from cutting-edge original research, Olofsson shows that not only is our sense of smell extraordinarily sensitive, its process of chemical exchange shaped human evolution on its most fundamental level.

From the pheromones, environmental signals, and emotions we process with each breath, olfaction makes us the individuals we are. Moreover, smelling is an intellectual exercise, Olofsson argues, one that we have the remarkable capacity to strengthen and, with some effort, even regain after illness.

With infectious curiosity and a host of applications—from emotional health and gastronomy to literature and even politics—The Forgotten Sense is a wide-ranging and entertaining look at this most understudied function of human life. 

Zusammenfassung

James Nestor’s Breath meets Mary Roach’s Gulp in a fascinating tour of our most essential sense for perceiving the world around us—and the story of how it became our most neglected.

Smelling is one of the most natural things we do. We take over 20,000 breaths a day, interacting with a host of scents with each one. Smell is also one of our most sensitive and refined senses; few other mammals surpass our ability to perceive scents in the animal kingdom. Yet, as the millions of people who lost their sense of smell during the COVID-19 pandemic can attest, we too often overlook its role in our overall health.

Now, one of the world’s leading researchers on smell Jonas Olofsson reveals the fascinating science behind this forgotten sense. Drawing from cutting-edge original research, Olofsson reveals not only that the human sense of smell is extraordinarily sensitive, but how it engages our brain’s full capacity. In fact, olfaction begins not in the nose, but in the brain, even before an odor’s molecules reach our smell receptors. Our memories, personalities, preferences, and expectations shape the way we interact with scents, with profound implications for how we perceive the world around us.

With playful curiosity and a breadth of scientific interest across neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and even literature, The Forgotten Sense reveals the wonders of smell, and all that we lose in neglecting it. We meet ancient philosophers who prized smell as well as the nineteenth-century scholars who associated it with “beastly” instincts and charted its devaluation for over a century. Olofsson untangles the role of smell in human evolution and answers the question of why two people can interpret the same smell differently. And, crucially, we see smell as the intellectual exercise that it is, with invaluable insight into how we might train our brains to strengthen and even regain our sense of smell after illness.

For readers of Bill Bryson and Steven Pinker, The Forgotten Sense reveals the depths of the most understudied function of human life.