Capturing the scent of the moon in a lab
Print Edition
HE may never have donned a spacesuit or flown in a space shuttle, but that hasn’t stopped Frenchman Michael Moisseeff from reaching for the stars.
After years of exploring and reconstructing the scents of planet Earth, the 66-year-old geneticist set himself a new goal — capturing the smell of the moon.
Moisseeff, with his floral shirt and a head of white hair, straddles the line between artist and scientist as he moves purposefully around the thousands of vials that make up his laboratory.
It’s here he performs his life’s work — dissecting the mysteries of smell and producing all kinds of scents, fragrances and emanations from molecules.
“To recreate the scent of undergrowth, for example, you have to go there first,” he said. “Is there any moss? Lichen? Moisture? I take an inventory and bring my elements together like a painter with his palette of colors. Then I work on the measures of each to try the best I can to finesse the scent.”
Unfortunately, the moon isn’t quite as accessible as the undergrowth and the Cite de l’Espace (Space City) in Toulouse, France.
“I didn’t want to pay for the trip,” he joked.
The only way he could build a picture of the scent in his nose — the key tool for his work — was to read up on descriptions made by various astronauts who walked on the moon, in particular Neil Armstrong, the first man ever to do so in 1969.
“Due to the lack of oxygen on the moon, he (Armstrong) obviously couldn’t smell anything but once back in the module, the smell of dust clinging to his spacesuit reminded him of the burnt black powder of an old six-shooter,” he said.
In order to reproduce that smell, Moisseeff chose to detonate black powder in his own saucepans.
After several failed attempts — and a couple of scares — he finally succeeded in “capturing” a burnt deposit.
Then, once he had worked out what kind of smell he was looking for, this modern day alchemist got to work finding the right notes to complete the scent.
A blend of metallic, carbon and sulphur notes combined to titillate the nostrils and the imagination.
“This enigmatic smell reproduced from the descriptions of various astronauts evokes scents we know like gunpowder and chimney ash, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t find it on the moon,” said Xavier Penot, scientific mediator at the Cite de l’Espace in Toulouse and the man behind the idea.
Humans have around 260 odor sensors situated in the olfactory mucosa, the smell organ located in the upper region of the nasal cavity.
“An odor occurs when a molecule encounters a sensor in your olfactory mucosa, generating a signal that causes a sensation in you,” said Moisseeff. “And this feeling is absolutely individual, depending on the genetics and the experience of each person.”
He has often been described as an “aroma sculptor” and certainly doesn’t shy away from linking his work to other creative arts, with his nose serving as his most important instrument.
“Smells are like music, you have to practice your scales all the time,” he said.
This “scientific artist” even displays his work in a variety of ways that would be familiar to contemporary artists — he has staged installations and fragrant experiences in telephone booths, entire villages and performance halls at the request of museums, associations or companies.
He even runs “odor tasting” trainings and workshops for anyone wanting to put their noses to better use.
Moisseeff’s next challenge takes him back to the Renaissance as he attempts to reconstruct the scent of the Mona Lisa, or at least her surroundings.
It will be “a meticulous work of investigation and historical research,” he said with some excitement.
If he succeeds, perhaps Moisseeff will finally uncover the secret behind that most famous of enigmatic smiles.
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