Museums are adding scents as another tool for communicating information about science and other subjects in their exhibits.
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Roberto Trotta, a theoretical physicist at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, has likewise experimented with smell, organizing a multisensory “journey through dark matter” at the Science Museum in London. The smell of black pepper oils served as the olfactory stand-in for this elusive form of cosmic mass.
“Given its relationship with the more primordial part of the brain, smell could then be used to elicit a more emotional (rather than purely intellectual) response to the topic being addressed,” Dr. Trotta said in an email.