With colleague Dr. Colette Berbesque (University of Roehampton), I am about to start two exciting new projects that focus on the human sense of smell in natural environments.
One project will focus on how our sense of smell may be influenced by subsistence. Our project is a corollary study to work by the Sorokowskas and co-workers (here and here) that argue for a relationship between odor acuity and discrimination relative to diet. We are interested in testing the hypothesis controlling for ecology (the other studies used disparate populations which introduced other explanatory variables) and genetics.
The other project will focus on how our sense of smell is influenced by modern living. My work on sensory inequities and our sense of smell in jeopardy were featured in the news media this past year (see here and here and here) and on radio (BBC Radio 5, BBC Radio Ulster, Dermot and Dave on Today FM Ireland, and Talk Radio Ireland) and form a platform for this project that generates supportive empirical data. We are interested in understanding how the human sense of smell is affected by modern living and how well-being is impacted by environmental effects.
Stay tuned at Smelling in the Wild for details of our upcoming pop-up pilot studies and how to get involved!!
The Smell of Evolution 