NOSE

Talking Wine and Making Sense of Scents with Dr. Ilja Croijmans

Interview by Caro Verbeek “It takes practice to master something, and olfaction is no exception. Smells deserve our attention too!” We all know it is incredibly difficult to describe scents. Is this any different for wine experts? What kind of words do they use? And does their vocabulary extend to ...
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Online sensory science course

NOSE's own co-chair Sanne Boesveldt will host an intensive online course on the principles of sensory science, especially for professionals working in the field of food and nutrition. Participants will learn about basic, as well as more advanced sensory methodology: good sensory practice, discrimination tests, sensory thresholds, descriptive, preference and ...
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New publication by Monique Smeets

Together with a group of Chinese psychologists, Monique Smeets published a new paper investigating the relationship between two human chemosignalling compounds and how emotional movement is perceived. Androstadienone and estratetraenol both deferentially affected the way in which emotional movement was perceived, with effects being different for male and female participants ...
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Women in Olfactory Science Symposium 2019

Women In Olfactory Science (WIOS) aims to create a network of women working in chemosensory science, to foster scientific collaborations, advance career perspectives, promote equal opportunities and inspire the future generations of researchers. After a very successful first event, it is now time for the 2nd WIOS symposium! The Wageningen ...
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Jasper de Groot is awarded a NWO VENI grant

Jasper de Groot will continue his exciting line of research on communication of emotions via body odor (i.e., chemosignalling communication) in a NWO funded VENI project: Outside of our awareness human body odors “communicate" social information from sender to receiver. Using a novel approach, Jasper will discover whether humans have ...
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Olfaction, the first and the last sense

A note by Garmt Dijksterhuis and Sanne Boesveldt presenting ten areas where there are opportunities for olfactory science to make new and important discoveries Olfaction, the first and the last sense. Garmt Dijksterhuis (WUR, Wageningen Food and Biobased Research) Sanne Boesveldt (WUR, division of Human Nutrition and Health) 1 Background Olfaction ...
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Review “Destilleren: de kunst van het ruiken” Fenny van Wees

Jenever heeft een lange en rijke traditie in Nederland. Toch wordt er maar weinig over geschreven, en is het alweer zo’n 200 jaar geleden sinds er een boek, geschreven door een distillateur, over verscheen in Nederland (Den volmaekten brandewijnstooker, uit 1794). En daar komt bij dat de traditie om genever ...
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Ode aan onze neus: We zijn prima ruikers

Asifa Majid was interviewed for a Volkskrant feature about the human olfactory ability ...
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Highlights from the inaugural NOSE scientific meeting

Despite the long and illustrious history of olfaction research in the Netherlands (e.g., Hendrik
Zwaardemaker from Utrecht University invented the olfactometer in 1888), there has never been a
dedicated national platform for olfactory researchers and allied parties to meet and exchange the
latest research perspectives. On November 15th the inaugural NOSE scientific meeting was held at
Utrecht University. The meeting included speakers from a range of disciplines (from medicine to art
history), and highlighted the breadth of olfactory research present today in the Netherlands. We
present some highlights of the events for those budding odour enthusiasts who were unable to
attend, and for those enthusiastic attendees who would like to relive the day.

Sanne Boesveldt (Wageningen University) discussed how olfactory cues can affect appetite and
eating behaviour, raising questions about when odours can be effective cues for food, and whether
they could be manipulated to increase healthy food behaviour. Peter de Jong (University of
Groningen) introduced how odour can be used in psychopathology and explained how disgust odours
can affect sexual behaviour. Garmt Dijksterhuis (Wageningen University) strongly argued olfactory
transmission is an unlikely possibility, highlighting differences between olfaction and vision and
sound. Andrea Evers (Leiden University) raised the question of whether odours can be useful in
placebo research and provided evidence that odours can condition physiological responses. Rob
Holland (Radboud University) again highlighted the relationship between disgust and odour, showing
that disgusting pictures can lower olfactory threshold, implying we become more attuned to odour
when we’re in a state of disgust. Asifa Majid (Radboud University) added a cross-cultural perspective,
showing that although vision language dominates across languages, in some cultures elaborate odour
lexicons exist. With an interactive odour presentation, Caro Verbeek (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
explored historical smells and taught us how to “look at art with an olfactory gaze”. Wilbert Boek
(Hospital Gelderse Vallei) discussed odour from the perspective of an ENT doctor, and emphasised
the effect anosmia can have on one’s daily life, and how the medical profession should be more
aware of its importance. The meeting ended with Monique Smeets (Utrecht University), describing
her work on the role of odour in social signalling, for example, the odour of fearful sweat can lead to
fear expressions, and the odour of happy sweat can lead to happy expressions.
After this fascinating first meeting, we look forward to hearing from new members, and to further
olfactory events in the near future.

Laura Speed