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On the Unpredictability of Odor
Author(s) -
Sell C. S.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.200600782
Subject(s) - odor , serendipity , character (mathematics) , cognitive science , computer science , psychology , artificial intelligence , data science , epistemology , neuroscience , philosophy , mathematics , geometry
The relationship between molecular structure and odor has fascinated and puzzled chemists for more than a century. Despite a great deal of research on structure–odor relationships, prediction of the odor of a novel molecule remains a statistical exercise and models only provide a probability of the character, threshold, and intensity. Surprises are still commonplace, and serendipity continues to be an important factor in the discovery of novel fragrant molecules. Recent advances in our understanding of the mechanism of olfaction provide an explanation for this and suggest that our ability to predict odor properties of molecules will not improve significantly in the near future.