The taste of molecules

"Is there a gender difference between women and men when it comes to bad smells? It turns out there is. And what happens when you secretly experiment on a group of scientists during a dinner eaten completely in the dark? Read and find out. A food writer for the The Wall Street Journal, Diane Fresquez spent a year on the trail of obsessive scientists and entrepreneurs who are trying to titillate our taste buds. In this lively sprint through foods and flavors, she explores the passionate young people working to uncover the truths about taste, including a brewery owner/scientist who's developed a banana-flavored beer meant to appeal to young women, and another who won't rest until he develops the perfect mead, the ancient liquor that has been called the ancestor of all fermented drinks. In between we meet a young mother and PhD student whose research shows that what a mother eats can influence the flavor of her breast milk, and possibly aid weaning; and a scientist in the Netherlands who does research on flavor and memory at an Orwellian university lab called the Restaurant of the Future. Diane Fresquez is a food and arts journalist based in Brussels, Belgium. She was for many years a special correspondent to The Wall Street Journal, contributing to and editing the newspaper's Weekend section in Europe. There she wrote on cuisine, home and garden, culture, and travel. She also contributes to Science/Business news service and other publications"--