The Emperor of Scent (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Chandler Burr
- First Published: 2003
- Type of Work: Science and biography
- Time of Work: 1953-2000
- Setting: Paris; London; Nice, France; Raleigh, North Carolina; Moscow; and India
- Principal Characters: Luca Turin, Walter Stewart
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Science and technology
- Subjects: France or French people, Twentieth century, Science or scientists, Paris, Obsession, North Carolina, India or East Indian people, London, Business or business people, Moscow, Perfumes, Smell
- Locales: Paris, France, London, England, Moscow, Russia, Nice, France, India, Raleigh, NC
Of all human senses, smell remains the most elusive in terms of finding a scientific explanation of its mechanism in the body. The Emperor of Scent tells the story of a scientist named Luca Turin, whose two particular gifts, his scientific intellect and his highly refined sense of smell, have combined to lead him to a new theory of how smell operates. The book has two main themes. First, it explains Turin’s theory of smell and the process by which he developed it. Second, the book looks at the way Turin’s theory of smell has been received by the scientific community and by...
[The entire page is 1913 words long]
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