Media Mentions

Verywell Mind: This Is Why We Associate Memories So Strongly With Specific Smells

It probably comes as no surprise that the sense of smell is closely linked with memory. “People often do say that the sense of smell conjures up memories so well that they feel as if they were experiencing the event again,” says Theresa L. White,...

04 October, 2021

I’m Not Dead Yet (Podcast): PD & Your Sense of Smell

How much do you know about your sense of smell? Do you still have it? What if there was a way to restore it? In this episode Judy and Travis interview doctors Hong Wang & Nancy Rawson, researchers from Monell Chemical Senses Center. Monell was the...

04 October, 2021

Food 52: Why Does Organic Mayo Taste Funny?

On the whole, I support buying organic foods whenever available and affordable. I welcome the occasional critter on the inner lettuce leaves; it’s his land, too. The sole, willful exception I make when buying organic is mayonnaise, because it tastes, well, weird—usually like stale nuts...

22 September, 2021

Popular Science: How to Enhance Your Senses of Smell and Taste

Eating is arguably one of the most pleasurable experiences we get to have. Getting a whiff of your favorite dish, or taking a single bite of your go-to dessert can instantly flood you with emotion—happiness, comfort, utter joy. If you think it can’t get better than...

07 September, 2021

The Cut: The Stench of Living (and Working) With Parosmia

Lindsay Davis had already put in her two weeks’ notice when she contracted COVID-19 at the Galveston, Texas, hospital where she worked in food service in February. Her symptoms were typical: headache, sore throat, fatigue. But by the end of March, the 21-year-old was spiraling: Memories...

06 September, 2021

Olive Oil Times: Certain Food Proteins Reduce Bitterness and Pungency of EVOO

From Australia to Uruguay and California to Turkey, producers tell Olive Oil Times reporters that potential customers are sometimes put off by the bitterness and pungency of robust extra virgin olive oils. These sensations come from the polyphenols found in extra virgin olive oil, notably oleocanthal....

26 August, 2021

Food Dive: How Digital Olfaction Could Make Inroads With the Food Industry and Consumers

From aiding with product creation to sniffing out spoiled produce, technology that mimics the way humans smell has the potential for wide applicability. Someday, consumers may rely on technology that mimics the way humans smell to help determine how fresh food is. The odor-sensing technology could...

24 August, 2021

Good Food (KCRW): The Nose Knows: Anosmia and Parosmia. What’s the Difference?

For many people who have lost their senses of taste or smell due to COVID, the most terrifying part can be not knowing when, if ever, those faculties will return. To demystify some of the science behind the smell disorders anosmia and parosmia, host Evan...

20 August, 2021

Top of Mind (BYU Radio): Hangry Science

Why does being really hungry so often come with being a little—or a lot—angry? You know, hangry! It happens to the best of us, and it’s not actually a character flaw. It’s triggered by a set of neurons in the brain that activate when we’re...

11 August, 2021

The Baltimore Sun: Since COVID, an Invisible Disability Is Strikingly Visible. Increased Concern Over Smell Loss Is Prompting New Research

One day in kindergarten, Alex Pieraccini sat and watched her peers pass around spices, sniffing them up as a sensory exercise. Pieraccini, now 30, couldn’t smell anything. “I was like, ‘Nothing is happening,’” said Pieraccini, a psychologist living in Canton. “I remember telling adults and not being believed for...