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A Stink to the Past

Smells Like Trans-Temporal Divergence Manipulation Technology

 

Time Machine

Artist's impression of how a smell-driven time machine might look. We have sacked the artist.

A team from Harvard University has noted that smells are capable of evoking strong memories, often from many years ago.

In a recent survey, many people remarked that certain odours could take them back to their youth - the smell of boiling cabbage might prompt recollections of school dinners, for example; or the smell of the sea might arouse reminiscences of a favourite holiday.

Taking this as their starting point, the team is ingeniously attempting to construct a time machine powered by smell. The exact mechanism by which they might reverse the flow of causality and tear down the barriers between the present and the past is something of a sticking point at the moment, but on the plus side they have already designed the machine's door handle.