OLFACTORY ART

Bacteria has the ability to detect and differentiate between odors. That's a study out of Newcastle University in the U.K., published some time ago in the Biotechnology Journal.
Researchers found in experiments designed to test bacterial growth formations, that two species of soil bacteria could not only pick up on the smell of ammonia in the air, but actually reacted to it.
If bacteria can sense ammonia and somehow migrate toward that source, that would be very beneficial.

In addition, scientists hope the finding will help them to reduce the harm caused by antibiotic resistant, disease-causing bacteria, which also form biofilms in such inconvenient places as hospitals and on medical devices. If scientists can find out a way to stop the bacteria from sniffing out the tasty food sources, they might be able to prevent its spread.

Earth Beat, 4 February 2011. From using smell in both architecture and art to influence behaviour and emotion, to customising soundscapes, we examine how smell and sound affect the way we do things.

Listen to the interview: Earth Beat - Sensing our environment

Sensory architect
Smell has powerful effects on our behaviour. Richard Mazuch is a director at Nightingale Associates, an architectural firm in London that specialises in this kind of thinking. When he designs hospitals and schools, he takes smell into consideration. He explains how scent can help speed up the healing and learning processes and why his colleagues should stop ignoring it.
  Olfactory art historianSmell has been indirectly used in art since time began. Caro Verbeek is an olfactory art historian or, as she likes to put it, an art historian of the other senses. Host Marnie Chesterton paid her a visit to find out exactly how much olfactory art history there is, and what it is that artists are trying to convey about the environment we live in when they use smell.