Nerdy Science Blog

“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (2006) directed by Tom Tykwer was a really nice movie.  The story was about a man born with superior olfactory sense tried to preserve the finest smell as perfume, and ultimately he turned to the dark side to achieve his goal.

In the movie, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille the perfumer source of finest perfume was young females.  Scientists also found a way to create perfume, however it is not from women, but tropical Vetiver grass.  The root bacteria of the tropical grass were found having the ability to promote the production of essential oils in the oil-producing cells.  The bacteria are also able to change the molecular structure of the oil, hence changing oil’s flavours and properties (termicidal, insecticidal, antimicrobial and antioxidant).  The researchers involved in this study were the microbiologists Pietro Alifano and Luigi Del Giudice, the plant biologist Massimo Maffei and their colleagues.

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I can’t stop the funny feelings and feeling like laughing out when I read the one of the highlight in nature news: Swiss dignity law is threat to plant biology.

The Swiss federal government’s ethics committee on non-human biotechnology has mapped out guidelines to help granting agencies decide which research applications deeply offend the dignity of plants — and hence become unfundable.

The funny feelings are just like when I see the fact we are having not enough money but Deputy Prime Minister insisting our second space tourism is on, and the fact where our CSI graduates are jobless after following courses designed by related government departments.

Except when I read the sentence “dignity of plants”, I can laugh it out.

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