Everything has ingredients — even people. Researchers have been working for years on the idea of a human “odor print,” a unique chemical signature derived from our body chemistry (or the chemistry of the microbes that ride along with us). And the idea behind “isoscapes” is that the specific chemicals in every object or compound have a sort of terroir, that the radiation signatures or other atomic characteristics of individual molecules can reveal history, place of origin and so on.
So, a modest proposal: Let’s figure out a way to, as the techies say, surface all that data. I want to see (or smell) all of it. Who knows? Maybe the isoscapes of daily life will teach us all a way to build something new out of the basic ingredients of our everyday lives.
Adam Rogers is a senior editor at Wired. He covers science and miscellaneous geekery.
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