Thursday, February 6, 2025

Hungry for New Content?

Here’s what’s on the menu over at my Substack!

À la recherche du vols perdu: The New York to Paris run back in the day

The Cheesiness of Weed: Non-terpene molecules grab the sensory spotlight

AI Bogosity in Berkeley: The scent of desperation

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum: Your piney scent delights us

Sniffing Between the Lines: An English Lit dissertation blows the roof off of X

An Indescribable Russian Space Stink: Plus, holiday fermentation fun

Step Right Up, Folks, Don’t be Shy: How to mass market a “rare” smell

Practicing the Wertz Catch on Alice Street: Farewell to a Boyhood Hero

Monday, August 26, 2024

Don't Get Eliminated!


Sign up for my FirstNerve Substack and never miss a new post! 


Let’s Go to a Conference!: How to navigate five days of smell and taste science in Iceland.

Some hard-learned lessons

 

 AI Goes Up the Nose: Never trust a bot.

Techno fad or a malign influence?

 

Multiple Maniacs: Three Days in L.A.

John Waters and William Blake in the City of Angels

 

The Music of Perfume: Ambitus, pitch-class entropy, and keeping it simple

Riffing on an interesting experimental design

 

At the Museum of Scent: A visit with Mandy Aftel and her new book

Catching up with the doyenne of natural perfumery

 

Mind-raped by Mark Zuckerberg and the Borg: Generative AI repackages other people’s creativity

Tech bros plunder other people’s intellectual property

 

Monday, December 4, 2023

Holiday Shopping Made Easy

Do you know someone who is into scent? Who loves entertaining explanations of science? Are you still scrambling for gift ideas?

Well, you’re in luck!

Give your special someone a copy of my book What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life. There is plenty of time to have a paperback copy delivered by Christmas.

For a great digital stocking stuffer and no worries about shipping delays, send a gift copy directly to their Kindle! Click the “Give as Gift” button on Amazon to have it delivered instantly, or schedule it to arrive on the recipient’s device at a specific date and time.

If your someone prefers listening to reading, get them the Audible version!

Sunday, January 8, 2023

No Longer in Bug Tussle


Come and listen to my story about a scribe named Jed,

A poor Blogger type, barely kept his timeline fed,

And then one day he was craving more impact,

So up on the web come a brand new Substack.

 

Free that is, hot takes, check it out.


Scare Tactics: They’re creepy and they’re kooky

Fear-mongering the science on COVID, nose picking, and Alzheimer’s


A Bubble of One’s Own: No book talk for you!

Masking forever in Berkeley


The Zombification of Celebrity Perfumes: Jennifer who?

New fragrances from beyond the grave

 

Estée Lauder Buys Tom Ford for $2.3 Billion: An illustrated version of the press release

Happy talk to paper over Tom Ford’s vularity

 

Inside Baseball: The Design of Olfactory Studies: You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball

When is a control group not a control group?

 

A Bibliophile's Christmas: Literary Suggestions for Long Winter Nights

A few favorites and some that never made my reading list

 

How About . . . Not?: Some New Year’s resolutions for other people

My suggestions for making the world less insufferable.

Monday, October 24, 2022

Who Wants to be a Yokozuna?

 

Have you missed the last few matchups? Then get on down to the basho. Remember, it ain’t over till the gyōji calls it.

A Smell Walk on the Mild Side: Missing the forest for the trees

A Quantum of Feelz: Tripping balls in St. Petersburg

AI on My Mind: “I’m sorry Ave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”

Battle of the e-Noses: Is the technology fully baked?

Is Perfume No Longer Sexy?: The NYT thinks so