Linda Buck

A biologist with a good sense of smell

Normally, before eating something we know if we are going to like it or not. It seems like magic, but without seeing it, tasting it or touching it, we can imagine what it tastes like.

Linda Diane Brown Buck, US professor of Biology and Medicine, was fascinated by this world of smells throughout her career. How is smell detected by the nose? How is it deciphered by the brain? For her research on this subject she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology – Medicine in 2004.

In fact, smell is one of the most mysterious senses. Each odour receptor recognizes one smell, and each is different from the other, so we can distinguish up to 10,000 different smells!