Can we record smells?

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Will it be possible to record smells, like we can do now with sounds and pictures?

Smell is dependent upon two things, the size of the atom being smelled and its inherent vibration (specifics of that component go down the road of quantum mechanics ; perhaps someone better versed then me can expand on this summary). This is a hard thing to measure, much less record, however devices do exist that can smell for specific things (like bomb detectors at air ports). They are unable to accurately smell things that they were not designed to, though, and there is a wide array of overlap of common chemicals that, to these machines, smell nearly identical.

What would be the recording medium? Smell is not electromagnetic radiation. A smell perception could be brought about by more than one chemical (there are artificial flavors and odors). Smell is a perception. How does one record a perception? We record descriptions of perceptions. We can record something like A smell like object B, but that is not a smell. It is a description of a smell.

ruveyn

Yes, in the form of neural mapping.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 110525.htm
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I'm a pilgrim on the edge, on the edge of my perception. We are travelers at the edge, we are always at the edge of our perceptions. -- Scott Mutter

And how does this get recorded and in what manner?

ruveyn

There's something related to this. The idea of smellovision.

smellovision is vaporwear, don't hold your breath.

The only reliable method I can think of for storing a scent is to use activated charcoal in a sealed container.
This is often employed by CSIs for detecting chemical residues from arsons or bombings.

The scent is the perception caused by the substance. Activated charcoal stores the substance, but not the perception.

ruveyn

Same as Jpgs. Not photons, but a description of a picture.

Ok now, me i'm no scientist but i do know that: Yes! we can record smells by useing tech (We do have, No myth) to copy the atoms in the air and reprint those to recreate that smell. Like I said i'm no scientist that's like super basic,

Oh. and because alot of people have been wanting to talk to me and stuff about science and all thought i know alot i am only 12 you can E-mail me and all, but i think i sould just say that on every one of my posts...

Atoms cannot be made up out of thin air. One does not reprint atoms. One fissions atoms, one fuses atoms but one does not reprint atoms.

Every atom in your body was cooked up in a supervova.

ruveyn

What about some of the first atoms, like hydrogen, we may have some of those orginals around?

Mass spectromiter used to dectet gasses compentents and levels...store the data into memory...smell has been recorded

Can it be "played back" (so to speak)?

ruveyn

That is true. Any atom heavier than lithium was cooked in a star.

ruveyn