Smelling history: from AI to chemistry

Some good news for history buffs who have had their fill of the sights and sounds of yesteryear: soon they’ll be able to experience its smells as well. This is thanks to an ambitious project called ODEUROPA, which has just received a big EU grant that brings together researchers from a range of disciplines including historians, computer scientists and chemists to reconstruct the pongs of the past. Marieke van Erp is one of them; she’s from the Dutch Digital Humanities Lab, and spoke to Eva Higginbotham...