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Journalism of Courage
CHANDLER Burr sprays some Gucci Rush on a piece of paper and sniffs. 8216;8216;It is one of my favourite perfumes. It8217;s a feminine perfume but I prefer them to men8217;s. Perfumes for men are defined by what you can8217;t put in them,8217;8217; says Burr. He has not always been this eloquent on the subject of fragrance. But a chance encounter in 1998 introduced Burr to the world of sprays and sniffs and set him to work on his bestselling book, The Emperor of Scent.
Interesting encounters appear to have a momentum of their own, singling out certain people. Burr is one of them. A journalist and author of A Separate Creation: How Biology Makes Us Gay, he was waiting for the Eurostar in Paris8217;s Gare du Nord and struck a conversation with a man who looked Italian. He was. Luca Turin was a biophysicist who had taught at the University College, London, and had written a perfume guide. He had a new theory for smell, a theory so revolutionary that it could change the way we all thought of smell.
For years Turin researched smell, watching the backroom boys 8212; scientists and technicians 8212; who create the perfumes that go by labels of fancy designers. His research led him to the discovery that smell is not contained in a molecule8217;s shape but in the vibrations of electrons. This brought him into conflict with the Shapists 8212; scientists who believe the sense of smell functions by recognising the shape of smell molecules. Burr expected a debate on the subject but was totally unprepared for the vehement denouncement that followed. 8216;8216;I have never experienced such an irrational scientific reaction. I have written on Christian fundamentalism, race and gender but I8217;ve never seen such a reaction. Most scientists didn8217;t even read Turin8217;s paper before rejecting it.8217;8217;
But he sees a method behind this madness. 8216;8216;Smell is the last great mystery. It involves a Nobel Prize. There8217;s also a lot of money riding on smell in the corporate world. Financially it means a new technology that threatens thousands of jobs of engineers and corporate executives and investment that runs into billions of dollars.8217;8217;
The British journal Nature too rejected Turin8217;s paper and he was never called for any conference. Finally he got one invite for a smell conference. It was in India. Coorg was where Turin for the first time articulated his theory on a public platform. 8216;8216;Turin was bowled over by the Indian response. Both he and I felt that Indian students are ten times more open and more broadly educated. In America, there is too much specialisation. The other reason why Indians responded so openly was that they didn8217;t have any vested interest,8217;8217; says Burr who8217;d accompanied Turin.
From Coorg they travelled to Mumbai to wander among the scent dusted corners of Muhammad Ali Road. Studying endless stalls heaped with exotic ingredients that go into making ittar was a unique experience. 8216;8216;It8217;s fascinating. It8217;s a perfume centre that doesn8217;t have an analogue in the West.8217;8217; It8217;s a journey Burr hopes to repeat.
From science Burr has moved on to pure aesthetics. At present he8217;s working on an article on fashion designer Manish Malhotra. The reason is simple. 8216;8216;In America people don8217;t know anything about Indian fashion.8217;8217;
As for Luca Turin, he8217;s decided that others may not want his theory, but he does. Turin is part of a new venture called Flexitral that makes odours based on his new theory of smell.
