Abstract
‘It makes everyone nervous smelling’, remarks Luca Turin, ‘because smell is such a strong sense.’ Turin, styled ‘the emperor of scent’, a bio- physicist, fragrance chemist, and co-author of a best-selling perfume guide, notes the squeamish reaction of scientific audiences when he talks to them about smell: Real men and scientists feel slightly ridiculous smelling something. I’ll say ‘let me show you some smells,’ and I start passing out vials and everyone titters, like I’ve asked them to take off their clothesor something.. . . When I wrote the perfume guide, most of my read- ers were gay men, and most of my readers assumed I was gay, which I’m not, not that I give a damn. Real men don’t smell things. It’s a female thing.1
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