Unlike sight or hearing, the sense of smell has been poorly studied. In recent years, however, several scientists have focused on the unexplored area of ​​the nose, studying the mysterious connection of smell with our emotions.

Luca Turin has been researching on this topic for many years, and has even proposed a quantum mechanism for the recognition of odours by neurotransmitters. Essentially, he claims that the human nose is capable of detecting tens of thousands of odours without error, through a wide range of aromatic compounds. Turin himself has excellent olfactory capabilities: in the past he worked as a CTO to develop aromatic compounds for a company designing perfumes and flavours, achieving 100 times greater success rate above industry average.

In his speech at the Athens Science Festival, Turin will refer to his efforts to prove that the nose acts as a vibrational spectroscope. At the same time, he will try to interpret why memories associated with smells are kept indelible in our memory, as opposed to images, sounds or flavours. This is the main reason why the nose is considered as a quantum machine with inconceivable possibilities.

Luca Turin is one of the scientists who strongly represent the moto of this year’s “Science Without Borders” festival. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon by Italian-Argentine parents and grew up in France, Italy and Switzerland. His studies in Physiology and Biophysics began at the University of London (UCL), where he received his doctorate in 1978. He worked as a lecturer in the Department of Biophysics at the same university, as a visiting professor at Ulm Institute of Theoretical Physics, as a researcher at MIT as well as at the BSRC Alexandre Fleming Institute in Athens, where he returned in 2016 with a scholarship from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Title: The nose as a quantum spectroscope || Date & Time: 27 April, 20.00 – 20.50