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Nature Neuroscience 12, 813–814 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nn0709-813

A noseful of objects

Christian Margot

As with most terrestrial vertebrates, humans are endowed with very high-performing noses, which are capable of detecting and discriminating an indefinitely large number of odorants. So it is a bit surprising that we consistently perceive a unique 'rose' perfume when we inhale the smell of fragrant roses, as these flowers emit widely different, only partly overlapping bouquets of volatile organic molecules.