Smell is one of the primal ways that we humans first navigate the world. Yet smell largely remains a sensorial mystery because of the intricate way that scent, emotion and memory are intertwined in the brain. Research into olfaction, the science of what happens between the nose and the brain, has intensified in the past couple of years due to the huge number of people who lost their sense of smell due to COVID. Luckily, this condition, anosmia, is usually temporary.
How much do our noses really matter in making sense of the world? Consider your coffee – just one sniff contains 800 separate volatile chemicals!
To help us understand this important but often overlooked sense, we talk to Sandeep Robert Datta, Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and Venkatesh Murthy, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science. They will be joined by Dr. Eric Holbrook, Director of Rhinology at Mass Eye and Ear Hospital.
Sandeep Robert Datta 
Venkatesh Murthy 
Eric Holbrook
Recorded January 11, 2022
