10. SOPHIE SCOTT’S SMELL CANNON

To illustrate how powerful scent messages can be as a means of communication, in 2017 neuroscientist Sophie Scott loaded up a cannon with some pungent smells and puffed huge, aromatic smoke rings at the crowd. Luckily for them, the first smelt a little like candy floss, She then loaded the cannon with a synthesised version of the molecules in poo, and shot those smoke rings at some unsuspecting audience members, who took it quite well. Her point was that smells contain important information, and that while a candy floss aroma tells us something might be edible, a poo smell lets us know that an object might be contaminated, and it’d be best not to consume it.

Scott also gave us a glimpse into direct, silent communication via brain waves, suggesting that’s how we could exchange ideas in the future. So what could we be learning about in the upcoming decades of Christmas Lectures? The possibilities are unimaginable.

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