This computer chip can smell things

Researchers have taught a computer how to smell. Teams from Intel and Cornell University designed a neural algorithm based on the brain's olfactory system (which recognises scents) and used it to teach a neuromorphic computer chip how to smell 10 different hazardous chemicals. The process supposedly mimics the effect a scent has on the human. Nabil Imam, one of the co-authors of the study published last week in Nature, explained how this research intersects neuroscience and computing. "My friends at Cornell study the biological olfactory system in animals and measure the electrical activity in their brains as they smell odours," he said.