Paired with illuminated labels that fade to white the moment you want to read them, this is more a show of prestidigitation than olfaction.

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According to two studies presented to the International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste, held in San Francisco this week, that is exactly what happens.

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For a dog, an animal whose primary sense is olfaction, the street is made up not of sights to see but of smells to smell.

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"Olfaction and taste are really the new frontier in neurobiology, " says Stryer, quickly adding that his love of good food and wine is a strong motivator in his quest.

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Three years ago Lubert Stryer, a professor of neurobiology at Stanford University, became intrigued with olfaction, thanks in part to two fellow scientists who uncovered a family of genes whose receptors for smell and taste are turned on at the base of the nose.

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"By linking up computer technology with the science of olfaction, we can speed up the creation of new compounds, and it can take us into areas we've never dreamed of, " says Rahman Ansari, vice president of technical affairs at Quest International, a unit of British chemical giant ICI that developed Este Lauder's blockbuster Tommy Girl.

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