The secret of roses: the chemical origins of a universal fragrance

Why does a rose smell... the rose? Behind this floral evidence hides an olfactory mystery that French scientists have just begun to elucidate. If the perfumers have captured the intoxicating volutes for centuries, biologists and chemists have come to decode some of the molecular keys that make a rose seem so pink to us. A sensory investigation, between botanical garden and laboratory, which reveals the fascinating alchemy of the plant world — an…