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#WSF11: The Invisible Language of Smell

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


When attending events, like scientific conferences, some people take copious notes with pen and paper. More and more people live-blog or live-tweet such events. But some people do something different - they live-draw the events.

Perrin Ireland is an artist who does this - turning the words, sounds, sights and smells of the event into cartoons. A couple of weeks ago she attended the World Science Festival in New York, where she live-drew several sessions. Two of those visual summaries we have already published here at ScientificAmerican.com - All about Stories: How to Tell Them, How They're Changing, and What They Have to Do with Science and The Bezos Scholars Program at the World Science Festival.

Here is the third, on Scents and Sensibilities: The Invisible Language of Smell. If you prefer just text, you can read the summary of the session by Greg Boustead here and the choice quotes from the event here. But if you are more of a visual type, just scroll down slowly....


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About the Author: Perrin Ireland is a graphic science journalist who currently serves as Science Storyteller at Alphachimp Studio, Inc. She uses art and narrative to facilitate scientists sharing their stories, and creates comics about the research process. You can find more of Perrin's work

here, and follow her on Twitter at @experrinment.

 

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.