The Science Of Scent

Not a supplement, an app, or a device. Just your nose—and what it’s been trying to tell you all along.

It’s in the air! Photo: Justin Steele

I am waiting for it to smell like summer.

Do you know what I mean? There’s always a moment before the seasons change when I breathe in the one that’s around the corner.

My first intense aromatic memory—the kind I knew, right then and there, would stick with me—was when I was 14. I was in the Ozarks of Missouri, playing in the state tennis championships (the year before this happened). It was the very end of October.

My team and coach were out to dinner. It was dark and cold. In the parking lot, right after climbing out of the van with the other girls, I caught a whiff of winter. It smelled like the sharp scent of snow, heavy with a wistful thrill that I didn’t understand yet. (The approaching holidays? Homecoming weekend?) Time cinematically slowed down with my realization that I had a new superpower…it felt like …