Making Sense of Smell

Meet some of the people featured in the October 2013 issue of The Scientist.

An issue devoted to the latest research on how smells lead to actions

October 2013's selection of notable quotes

Could the fungus-gardening activities of leafcutter ants teach humans how to produce sustainable biofuels?

A new tick-borne disease has emerged in the US Midwest—and the culprit is not a bacterium. 

A genetic analysis that tracks the evolution of pathogens helped incriminate a Spanish anesthetist who infected hundreds of patients with hepatitis C.

Hypersaline, anoxic basins on the Mediterranean seafloor harbor pockets of unique and diverse life.

While genomic data sharing is essential for research, scientists must work to keep sensitive, potentially damaging information under wraps.

Avoiding the transmission of mitochondrial disease takes a trio, but raises a host of logistical issues.

Diamonds are a biomagnetologist’s best friend.

In discrete neuron networks linking odor receptors in the nose to higher brain areas, similar odors are parsed by deep-lying cells with narrow odor selectivity.

Prolonged responses to odors, called afterimages, may originate in the brain, rather than in the nose.

Ensembles of as few as 25 mushroom body neurons allow Drosophila to distinguish and react to specific odors. 

Thanks to a book, a war, and a big green caterpillar, John Hildebrand found himself mapping the exquisite and surprising wiring of the insect olfactory system.

Professor, Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago. Age: 38

The modern technique of optogenetics stimulates the complex act of smelling with a simple flash of light.

Solutions for sharing, storing, and analyzing big data

How to make your lab less like a factory and more like a family

It’s time for evolutionary medicine to fully inform clinical research and patient care.

Perv, Behind the Shock Machine, The Gaia Hypothesis, and Life at the Speed of Light

A scientist’s desperate attempts to prove that Mycobacterium leprae causes leprosy landed him on trial, but his insights into the disease’s pathology were eventually vindicated.