Our sense of smell at the crossroads

Summary The human sense of smell has long been belittled as a vestige of the more powerful olfactory capabilities observed in other mammals. Yet, now that the genes for our 350 olfactory receptors are known and researchers are beginning to link them both to olfactory stimuli and to downstream neurological processes, olfaction emerges at an important crossroads allowing scientists to investigate connections between evolution and behaviour, and between perception and language. Michael Gross reports.