{"id":31615,"date":"2026-03-02T20:34:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T20:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=31615"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:52:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:52:27","slug":"the-science-behind-smell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/the-science-behind-smell\/","title":{"rendered":"The science behind smell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Meet Edgar Orellana Reyes and Abbie Deeth (aka Gail)\u2014a research duo at Macalester who prove that high-level science is better with a \u201cbestie\u201d by your side. The two worked in the lab of Professor Michelle Tong, Neuroscience, through Macalester\u2019s Collaborative Summer Research Grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While they\u2019ve been \u201clocked at the hip\u201d since they met, they bring two very different (but complementary) vibes to the lab:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Edgar: One of the most cool and collected scientists you\u2019ll meet.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Abbie (Gail): A high-energy optimist who keeps the lab\u2019s spirit high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are they studying? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The team is diving deep into the world of perineuronal nets. These are specialized structures that extend around neurons. Specifically, they are investigating how these nets affect our ability to smell and discriminate between different scents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Deeth puts it, she\u2019s learned to take a step back and accept that the results will be what they\u2019re going to be. Between mounting slices onto slides and peering through microscopes, these two are having the time of their lives. In their words: \u201cWe should be celebrities.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At Mac, research isn&#8217;t just about chasing a specific result; it\u2019s about the process. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":31629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[132,677],"class_list":["post-31615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","tag-neuroscience","tag-student-research-and-creativity","mediatype-videos"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_link_url":"","custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","article_type":[2],"post_thumbnail_style":"default","flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_downloads":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31615"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31843,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31615\/revisions\/31843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}