Scientists Map Smell for the First Time

Scientists have created the first detailed maps of odor receptors in the nose and brain, revealing an unexpected order behind one of the body’s most mysterious

(Caption topography of odorant receptors in the olfactory epithelium and projections to the olfactory bulb identified by Multiplexed Error Robust Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (MERFISH). Courtesy of Bogdan Bintu)

Vision has its retinal map, and hearing has its cochlear one. Smell, scientists long believed, had nothing comparable—just receptors scattered randomly across nasal tissue, with no logic to explain how we detect the world’s more than one trillion odors. New research now shows that smell has been hiding its order all along.

Two new studies published in Cell reveal that smell is far more organized than anyone suspected. Dr. Sandeep Robert Datta and colleagues at Harvard Medical School created the first detailed map of approximately 1,100 odor receptors in a mouse’s nose. In a companion study, Catherine Dulac’s lab at the university produced a similar map and traced how those receptors connect to the brain.