The Emperor Of Scent

It was on the Eurostar Paris to London trip that the author met Luca Turin and was so fascinated by the scientist's account of his research that he asked permission to write a book about it. The obsession of the subtitle is Turin's passionate search for an explanation of the human ability to recognize and differentiate between different scents. As well as a theme and a strong central character a good story needs tension, and here it is provided by the reluctance of fellow scientists to acknowledge Turin's findings. It all began when Turin's delight in analysing smell led him to write a book describing the different perfumes on the market; this gave him an entry into the world of what the author calls the Big Boys, those who make their money from funding new perfumes and selling them; it also gave him access to the archives of those chemists involved in creating perfume. When Turin was offered a two-year contract by University College, London, he studied the existing theories of smell which suggested that the olfactory process was dependent on the shape of molecules. Turin became uneasy about this theory and when he chanced on an article about an electron tunnelling spectroscope he came up with his own idea which he called Vibration Theory. The BBC offered Luca Turin an opportunity to discuss this on a Horizon programme but the article he submitted to the top scientific journal, Nature, was turned down after peer reviews rejected it. He was ridiculed and shunned by those controlling invitations to conferences. The author states that Turin's detractors have refused to comment on the reasons for their coldness but he suggests that envy, vanity and cussedness may have something to do with it. Although Burr has written with coherence and lucidity, the complex passages explaining the scientific process are not easy for the general reader to fathom but every reader will enjoy the inside stories about perfume, about life at University College and the vivid accounts of Turin's triumphs and bitter clashes with colleagues. An eye-opener for those who thought that scientists were calm, fair and dispassionate. (Kirkus UK)