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Mathematical physics

On the right scent

Nature volume 445, pages 371–372 (2007)Cite this article

Searching for the source of a smell is hampered by the absence of pervasive local cues that point the searcher in the right direction. A strategy based on maximal information could show the way.

Like many other insects, a female moth releases specific blends of odours — pheromones — to signal her presence to males. The pheromone plume is not a smooth, continuous cloud but consists of intermittent, wind-blown patches of odour separated by wide voids. The probability of encountering one of these patches decays exponentially with distance from their source. Under these circumstances, finding the pheromone source cannot be accomplished simply by 'chemotaxis' — climbing a chemical concentration gradient1. On page 406 of this issue2, Vergassola, Villermaux and Shraiman bring a breath of fresh air to the olfactory search problem: given scanty information, how do moths successfully locate their mates over distances of hundreds of metres?

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Figure 1: Scent trackers.

D. MARTINEZ

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  1. Laboratoire Lorrain de Recherche en Informatique et ses Applications (LORIA-CNRS), Campus Scientifique, Vandoeuvre-Lès-Nancy, France, 54506

    Dominique Martinez

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  1. Dominique Martinez
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Martinez, D. On the right scent. Nature 445, 371–372 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/445371a

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