A newly developed neural network links the chemical structure of substances to their smell. This could eventually lead to a method of digitally storing odours.

A newly developed neural network links the chemical structure of odourants to their smell. There is no universally accepted way to quantify and categorise odours the way we express light in wavelengths and sound pitch in frequencies. A group of US researchers developed a special neural network to create an olfactory map that links a particular molecular structure to a particular olfactory experience. They have published their Principal Odour Map in Science. With this approach, they hope to eventually provide a way to store odours digitally, just like images and sounds.