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Guardian

Guardian

The Big Idea: looking for a better life? Follow your nose

Guardian
Summary
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76% Informative

Our sense of smell develops before we’re born and is strongly linked to brain centres associated with creating new memories.

Smell can merge these together, forming vividly personal memories.

For centuries , bad odours were seen as carriers of disease, and only pleasant ones could protect against them.

Today , odourless environments have become an ideal to aspire to, and it seems as if we pay less attention to smells than ever before.

Jonas Olofsson is a professor at Stockholm University and author of The Forgotten Sense .

Smell connects the many facets of who we are like no other sense, awakening our emotions and drives, he says.

The smell-walk instils a sense of connectedness, making us realise that all places have their characteristic smellscape” shaped by their unique nature, history and culture.