Why Old Books Smell Good

Why Old Books Smell Good

“Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us.

—From Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez’s Perfumes: the guide

Another accidental post - bonus bat for everyone!

ALOIN CELLS:

  Botanist Anatoly I. Mikhaltsov of the Children’s Ecological and Biological Center in Omsk, Russia, was studying the anatomy of Aloe erinacea, an endangered species of aloe endemic to Namibia, when he captured this image of the plant’s aloin cells (blue)—which secrete a component of the gel-like sap that oozes from an aloe’s severed leaf—using a coloring method that he developed. The cluster of aloin cells is 300 microns wide.  [Less] [Link to this slide] 

Anatoly I. Mikhaltsov/Children’s Ecological and Biological Center

This Week in Science - May 20 - 26, 2013:

Super-capacitor phone charger here.

Salamander regeneration here.

Imaged orbital structure here.

Sweat-soaking fabric here.

Beginnings of universe experiment here.

Algorithm diagnosing leukemia here.

3d-printed splint here.

Irish potato famine cause here.

White tigers’ coats here.

Neuronal beacon here.

Spray-on lens here.

Fixing insect model here.

Jacob Sanders

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