The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses
Seven companies in the world are responsible for making almost every product you smell, from dishwashing soap to expensive perfume. The Emperor of Scent, by Chandler Burr, is an expose of the $20 billion fragrance industry, but it's also a fascinating character study of a fragrance rebel, an olfactory-gifted man named Luca Turin who has a far-put theory on how our noses detect odors (he says it's the vibrations of the molecules and not their shape that our sense of smell interprets).
Naturally, Turin meets massive resistance from the scientific community about his ideas, and Burr reveals the sometimes-sleazy world of peer-reviewed journalism.
The book is a fun to read. Burr is a great storyteller, and I was impressed with his ability to explain unfamiliar science in a way that makes sense. Link
