Why do we love the smell of books so much? Science explains it

The smell of the book. Just reading this very special smell comes to mind. On the one hand, the smell New book out of the press With its white pages and a new story to tell in the future; On the other hand, the smell of books that we inherited from our fathers with a story already known with yellow pages in it The passing of the years is appreciated.

but Why do books have that distinctive smell? Above all, Why do we love her so much? Both questions are answered by science.

Mateja Sterlik is a chemist and professor at University College London. This researcher wondered what the smell of old books looked like and developed a file An artificial nose capable of detecting and identifying odors That these emit. “A blend of herbal ingredients, with Sour tips, and a little vanilla About the latent smell of moldIt is a description of the smell of an old book that the professor picked up in his work “The Scent of Heritage: A Framework for Identifying, Analyzing, and Archiving Historical Scents.”

The products that make up the leaves naturally degrade over time, exposure to oxygen, moisture, dust … and our brain connects this directly A combination of scents as something nice.

Chocolate coffee…

In a study by University College London researchers who gave volunteers the scent of organic compounds from a 1928 novel, more than a third of the participants said: The smell reminded them of chocolate.

Coffee was the second scent chosen. It may sound strange, but that’s because Chemical and fermentable compounds It contains … which matches some of the ingredients also found in waste paper.