The Science of Smell

Wednesday, January 19, 2022, 6:30-7:30 pm
In 2010, Harold McGee, world-renowned authority on the chemistry of foods and cooking, began work on a book about the flavors of food and drink. A decade later, he published a book about food and drink--but also about outer space, pets, people, laptops, petrochemicals, perfumes, and more. In this virtual talk, McGee will explain how he came to dive into volatile chemistry, and how it is that smell is the bridge between our experience of foods and our experience of the larger world. McGee studied science and literature at Caltech and Yale, and has written two prize-winning books, On Food and Cooking and The Curious Cook, as well as many articles. This program is coordinated by the library's Biotechnology Learning Center and will be followed by Q&A.