Tag: Smell
CityLab has obtained a circa-1870 “stench map,” which shows the locations of what were called “offensive trades,” or industries that made the city stink. 19th century medical science believed that bad smells and tainted air caused diseases like cholera. The map was created by the New York Metropolitan Board of Health and can be found […]
What’s the scent of New York? “A warm, musty smell that comes from the cellar,” mostly, according to artist Kate McLean. With a few volunteers, she’s on a quest to create a Smell Map of the city, as she’s already done for Amsterdam, Milan and Edinburgh. Her team of several dozen scent detectives have been following her […]
According to a new study in the Journal of Neuroscience, when a selection of human test subjects were exposed to a series of disturbing images such as car crashes and war, the smells of seemingly benign objects were subsequently interpreted as “malodorous.” We encounter anxiety and as a result we experience the world more negatively. The environment […]
