Slashdot Mirror
Cloning the Smell of the Sea
An anonymous reader wrote in with an article that opens: "Scientists from the University of East Anglia have discovered exactly what makes the seaside smell like the seaside — and bottled it. The age-old mystery was unlocked thanks to some novel bacteria plucked from the North Norfolk coast." The responsible substance, dimethyl sulfide, in addition to smelling like the coast, also acts as a homing scent for birds looking to feast on plankton.
Very intresting research but why do we need to find out why the seaside smells like the seaside? I'm all for curiousity and discovering stuff, but this sounds really useless.
I like muppets.
This is not a new discovery - Seinfeld's Kramer tried to bottle it under the monkier 'Beach'. Kalvin Clein howerver stiffed him and marketed it as 'Ocean'. I reckon they should employ fragrance lawyers NOW!
Nothing witty
Man, I just had a great idea for a new cologne. I gotta get a meeting with Calvin Klein.
I think it would take alot more than ONE substance to accurately reproduce the scent of the Jersey Shore..
So...how long before I can use this stuff to seduce that cheeky seagull I've had my eye on lately?
All your beach are belong to us
[/sarcasm]
i'm not so sure i'd want to open that bottle...
this is great NOW, but what about ten years from now when some sharp smell expert tries do duplicate the smell of fifty engineers in cubicles and it's YOUR socks they want?
Ah so they let the can of Tuna rot... Smart.
So my house smells of the sea - reminding me of idyllic childhood holidays and endless summers.
But I have to pay a little man to beat off the sea birds who have come in search of plankton. I live 1,400km from the ocean.
Pros and cons...
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
Kramer already did this
p isode)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pick_(Seinfeld_e
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
One 'marine' scent has been around for a while and is heavily used in common fragrances - Calone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calone
They cloned the what of the sea? Smell? Is that one of the new user interface features supported in Vista? When will we have it in KDE?
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
They knew about it further west long ago; it was the molecule of the month at Bristol University back in October 2005, where they mention its contribution to the smell of the sea. And of truffles. And of farts. Mmm, versatile!
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
God Be Gone
exactly, the sea doesn't smell like that if you don't have all the decomposing seawead.
Take several used condoms, some dirty needles, put them in sand covered plastic shopping bags - voila, instant sea smell.
At least, it smells like the sea near where I live.
Something about sea air makes fish and chips particularly appealing. Perhaps landlocked chip shops could blast out some synthetic sea air and make passers-by particularly hungry?
Wow, this was completely Cosmo Kramer's idea which he pitched to Calvin Klein. They stole the idea and created Ocean cologne. Then when confronted by Kramer, they made him an underwear model.
When Seinfeld finds out about this a lawsuit is sure to follow...
Mostly replaced by synthetics nowadays apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris
Same compound that makes your beer smell like canned peas. Not a good quality.
considering a protein skimmer on a saltwater tank is doing a similar job that the beach does for the ocean, shouldnt I just be able to dump the nasty fish poo foam from mine into some mixed saltwater and get a similar smell? Maybe add some aragonite sand to it and mix it up?
.
EXT. SANTA MARIA - DECK - DAY
Piss is dripping on the deck. THE SAILORS do not seem to care. THE COOK takes a chicken from a cage. He breaks its neck, and starts plucking it. The OTHERS continue their bitter conversation.
ALONSO
We should have seen land.
SAILOR
We left three weeks ago, Alonso. Can't be that near.
ALONSO
Can't be that far, I say. Also, I don't like the smell of the sea around here. Smells like a whore. Bad sign...
The COOK starts laughing. They turn to him.
COOK (shaking his head)
Of course it smells like it! That's why sailors take to the sea!
Conquest of Paradice script
Defining Statistics and Social Research
> dimethyl sulfide, in addition to smelling like the coast,
> also acts as a homing scent for birds
I always knew the scientists could come up with a pheromone which really does attract the birds.
Now I can smell like the sea AND get all the hot chicks.
...Let's just hope that life doesn't start imitating the "backwards" episode where they start out iin the present in India, and end up in the past in New York... I'm pretty sure that would (eventually) destroy the universe...
Who did what now?
Yes, the smell of dead fish . . . at least where I am from.
East Anglia is to Great Britain as Mississippi is to the United States: populated by ignorant, tasteless in-breeds.
I know - I lived in Peterborough for six years.
Apparently they've managed to bottle the smell of "rotting seaweed", or coogee, as I think the australian aborigines call it (it's also the name of a beach on the outskirts of Sydney).
Why, yes! I AM new here.
Now we know that if some factor threatens this bacteria existence, Some birds won't be able to find the sea easily.
Could or could not be of a crucial importance in ecosystem management.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
The most notable characteristic of the sea is that it is constant, eternal, but always changes. Waves, tides, floods, storms, breezes, everything about the sea is always in constant change. It's a metaphor for change. And since smells are little pieces of the thing dissolving directly in the flesh of our brains, the smell changes all the time, too.
Different seas. Different tides. Different seasons. Different weather. Very different smells. I've lived on Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf and Great Lakes. I've visited the Eastern and Western shores of them, the eastern reach of the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, Mediterranean, North, Irish, Marmara and other seas. They've all got different, distinctive smells, which themselves vary.
When scientists can bottle that, an everchanging ocean of sea smells, they've really got something. Until then, they've just got some dirty water.
--
make install -not war
I was on a US Submarine for about 5 years. I would not say the sea really smelled all that good, specially when introduced to it immediately after living in the subs recycled air for so long. When you first step foot into a submarine that has been at sea for a while, the smell is terrible. I dont know how to describe it and what the key components are but it is a bad industrial stale smell, not overpowering but it is there. Same in reverse though. The first blast of real outside sea air you get after being on the sub for 90+ days smells worse. Dirty wet dog smell comes to mind.
I have a few bags of my navy clothes in my closet at home, to this day, 8 years after getting out of the Navy and 10 years after being stationed on a sub, I can still smell that submarine smell when I open that bag. I guess I smell the sea air daily and it does not bother me any more!
The smell of farts? I think you answered that other guy's question about how to replicate the scent of the Jersey Shore.
Considering that the sea side usually has a fishy smell. And taking into account that pussy (you know, the female sex organs that you dorks never get a chance to touch or see) has a fishy smell. This means that they have also discovered the secret behind the smell of pussy. So the real question is why in god's name would anyone want to know how to reproduce that smell. I hate the smell of the seaside and I hate the smell of pussy. (Unless it's been douched with some kind of industrial strength cleanser)
Headline reads "Smell-a-Vision replaces Television".
Back in the day, after a night of pounding down many beers, one of my hard-drinkin' roommates would take a dump which left the distinct aroma of "low tide". If that's what they're trying to capture, it's already been done by Budweiser.
== First cross river, then insult alligator.
DMS in beer, from bacterial infection or inadequate boiling, is often described as smelling as cooked shellfish or seafood....
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
Intellectual property theft is an enormously damaging economic and cultural crime and linked with terrorism.
Counterfeit goods [like this fake sea smell] is a crime that is seen as victimless by many but it is in fact a destructive and potentially deadly criminal activity.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
Insert joke about ex-girlfriend/ex-wife here.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The north coast of Norfolk -- that would be Hampton Roads. That is a shipyard and what it really smells like is diesel and oil.
I suppose that is a "manly" odor, but would you really want to go on a date smelling like you hadn't had a chance to get a shower?
hm? it is england? naah.
They could have saved themselves a lot of reserach by going on Disney's ride Soarin'. It's a simulator with smells, when you fly over the coast of CA it smells like the sea, which remarkably smells like...salt.
If you're a sailor, it's the smell of land.
rj
So, how soon will we be able to remove this smell from the seaside?
When is Slashdot going to add a -1 moderation option for people who actually RTFA?
It'll be interesting to see how the intellectual property of this research is delimited. This historical case (top of page) between L'Oreal (now owners of the Body Shop I believe) and a lesser known perfumery, was ruled on the basis that scents are a "work of the mind" and so fall under the same principles of authorship as music and film.
Put simply, is the sea or the scientist the author of this smell? Could this research lab sue another organistion company for producing a similar smell even if not using the same techniques? Similarly, does a field recording of the 'dawn chorus' of toads somewhere in the tropics belong to the toads or the man recording it? I've mixed field recordings (cicadas, birds, wind, thunder) into film in the past, handed to me in the form of a highly protected Sample CD, the likes of which are used again and again in numerous feature-films the world over. The samples themselves have not been consciously treated, they are not 'coloured' in any way (that's the idea of course). Perhaps this same absurdity will carry over to the world of scent reproduction.
I was a biochemistry major in college. As I recall DMS (dimethyl-sulfide), like DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide), has an odor like cooked or rotting cabbage. In trying to refresh my memory I came across this passage from chemistry.org: "Dimethyl sulfide causes that distinctive smell from your St. Patrick's Day boiled cabbage. When this compound is present at low levels in wines, it contributes to an overall fruity odor. Dimethyl sulfide given off by marine organisms is thought to be a source of cloud condensation nuclei, and this, in turn could affect the Earth's climate.". So while DMS may be one component that contributes to the distinctive "beach" smell, I doubt that it alone gives the distinctive fresh aroma of the sea.
Dead fish
Diesel Oil
Raw sewerage.
Not necessarily in that order.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Please for everyone's sake let it not be the smell of the sea at low tide.....
Doesn't this mean we now have a substance that will make birds target you and crap all over you?
"also acts as a homing scent for birds looking to feast on plankton."
"Hey! what's with all the flying jerks?"
It's really the smell of the coastal zone. All that nutrient rich runoff feeding the plankton which release dimethyl sulfide combined with rotting vegetation.
The smell of the sea is one of those romantic things you don't want to think about too much (or at least not out loud to your girlfriend). Just like sunsets are beautiful because of dust and smog, and stars are gigantic, deadly fireballs that spew out millions of tons of nuclear waste per day and fill space with lethal hypervelocity particles and cancer-causing radiation that assault our planet's tiny magnetic field. Or like how the majestic bald eagles are largely filthy scavengers, and eggs are effectively the menstrual discharge of a chicken.
Just one of the many reasons nerds can't actually get girlfriends.
Oooooohhhhh wonderful! Now all they need to do is work out why my hair gets that lovely little kink in it when I spend a day at the beach and I wont ever need to go again! Hooray!
"Scientists from the University of East Anglia have discovered exactly what makes the seaside smell like the seaside -- and bottled it."
They called it: Old Spice
What's that new cologne you're wearing? It has a smell. A kind of smelly smell that smells.... ...
smelly.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Dimethyl Sulfide or DMS as known to beer brewers is common fermentation by product that tends to be present in beers made from fermentables high is sulfur (e.g. corn) which give your standard industrial lager (e.g. Budweiser, Rolling Rock, etc.) its distinctive cooked corn smell. I've never cracked open a Bud and thought, ahh the ocean. I always thought it was more of the fish and seaweed rotting out in the salt flats that gave it that attractive fragrance.
A passion for apathy.
It seems like the status of "official sea smell" is contested. Now dimethyl thioether doesn't smell like sea, it smell like cabbage. (Note that technical grade thioethers typically contain extremely malodourous impurities.) It's a component in seawater smell, but not the defining one. The characteristic smell of seawater comes from exciting molecules called dictyopterenes, particularly the cyclopropane dictyopterene A.
They are exciting because they are products of natural carbocation rearrangement, when carbocation rearrangement in the lab requires extreme acidity (one I did was catalyzed by sulfuric acid with anhydrous acetic acid as the solvent). Also, the cyclopropanes have not only unusual structures (carbon triangles), but unusual reactivity, resembling alkenes more than cyclic alkanes, because are actually more like double-bonded than single-bonded (exactly: a three-center two-electron bond of three carbenes).
See: Chirality & Odour Perception and Angewandte Chemie, Volume 39, Issue 17, Pages 2980-3010.
Things from the sea that make it smell the way it does can smell pretty bad.
I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.