Is the museum of smells a good idea? They were once thought to be lost forever. But teams of scientists around the world are racing to reunite us with the pongs of years gone by.
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The fight to recapture a whiff of the past
Is the museum of smells a good idea? They were once thought to be lost forever. But teams of scientists around the world are racing to reunite us with the pongs of years gone by.
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What's happening?
Imagine going to a big museum, but when you step inside there is nothing there. Nothing to see, that is. But there is plenty to smell.
Historians want to create a museum of smells. They think that we have ignored how smells make times and places unique.
Scientists are working on recreating smells from the past. Cecilia Bembibre has recreated the scent of old books and moulds. A project in Europe is looking through old historical texts to find descriptions of smells.
Soon, there will be an online encyclopaedia of smells. Some museums are already adding smells to their displays. One day, there could be a whole museum of smells.
Smell is the most powerful of all our five senses. Some people think smell can help us connect with other people and times. If we can smell a place, we can imagine what it would be like to be there.
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But because we cannot discover old smells, they are often forgotten.
Is a museum of smells a good idea?
Yes! Smelling the past could help us understand what it was like to live in different times. And it is important to keep today's smells alive too.
No! This is a silly idea. Smells are meant to appear and disappear quickly. And nobody wants to spend their time smelling the stink of an ancient city.
The fight to recapture a whiff of the past
