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.

Comments

Smell of the sea?

[Fist! Of! Death!]

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!

Life imitates Seinfeld

[DreadfulGrape]

Kramer already did this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pick_(Seinfeld_ep isode)

Re:intresting

[BrokenHalo]

I'll be having my sea-side air (freshener?) thank you!

You didn't have to wait. It has been known that dimethyl sulfide is the main component of the smell for many years. I distinctly remember it being mentioned when I was in high school, and that was in the '70s.

Re:intresting

[mlush]

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. How about a different spin on the story

New biosynthetic pathway for dimethyl sulphide discovered

Dimethyl sulphide is used in petroleum refining, steel mills and as a feed stock for the important solvent dimethyl sulfoxide. It is hoped that these the new bacterial synthetic pathway can replace the current polluting industrial process with a cleaner greener biosynthetic process.

Dont forget Ambergris

[DaveCar]

Mostly replaced by synthetics nowadays apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris

Mmmm... DMS

[frazamatazzle]

Same compound that makes your beer smell like canned peas. Not a good quality.

Re:Is this news?

[Anonymous Coward]

It has been known that dimethylsulfide is produced in salt marshes and gives them the characteristic odor for a long time. The Spartina grass forms a molecule called dimethysulfoniopropionate (DMS) as an osmotic regulator to allow them to grow in salt water. When the grass dies, bacteria decompose it to form dimethylsulfide and acrylate. I was interested in looking at this process more than 10 years ago, even collected mud in the marshes while at the beach on vacation, but never had the time to follow up on it. The only thing new here is that they have cloned the genes and found that there is an unexpected requirement to form a CoenzymeA ester of DMSP before the lyase acts on it.

Is It The High Tide Or Low Tide Aroma?

[SkyDude]

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.