IT WOULD be the ultimate perfume: a scent that evokes universal happiness. While we’re not there yet, a method of identifying scents that provoke the same response in everyone who smells them has brought that ideal a step closer.
For years, sensory scientists had assumed that our reactions to smell were hopelessly entwined with our cultural background. “When I came to the UK I was shocked that the smell of chrysanthemums evokes romantic feelings in people here,” says Phillipe Durand, a perfumer at fragrance development company Quest International in Ashford, Kent. “In France we associate it with graves and death.”…
