Scent of strawberries

[dr_whom]

So last night I was slicing up tomatoes, Kalamata olives, spinach, and Bucheron cheese. Elsewhere in the room there were apparently some overripe bananas. Somehow the combination of some subset of these five aromas—I couldn't tell you exactly which ones—gave me a very strong impression of the scent of strawberries. It was very distinctive, and kind of disconcerting since there weren't any strawberries around.

Comments

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

Actually... strawberries would have been pretty good in that.

[dr_whom]

Indeed! My actual thought process was 'Mmm, strawberries. What a good idea! ...Except wait a minute, there aren't any strawberries.'

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Well, the most current research I know of suggests that the olfactory epithelium contains about a thousand receptor proteins that are involved in perceiving smells, and obviously there are more than a thousand scents in the world, so it makes sense that combinations would have to be involved. It's fascinating stuff--I really wish olfaction were better understood just because it's so cool, but apparently cool doesn't earn funding.