Smells are present at many places – in the city, at home, in nature. All odors, be it the aroma of your favorite dish, the smell in the subway, or the scent of roses, have one thing in common: they are conveyed by small, light molecules eliciting the respective odor. We humans also contribute to the odor landscape that surrounds us: our body odors blend with other smells, such as, e.g., the smell of the clothes we wear. Sometimes, we even deliberately influence our personal smell signature – e.g., through cosmetics or perfumes.

It is a highly topical scientific endeavor to understand how individual physiological variables shape the molecular composition of body odors. Current research in olfaction furthermore deals with the psychological and physiological processes that happen when we perceive odors.