Smells can inspire, arouse -- and drive you mad

Over the years, Herz has conducted numerous surveys and tests to gauge the psychological importance of smell.

For while taste is only bitter, salty, sour, sweet and umami or savory, all flavors come from smell, so without smell you can't taste the difference between an apple and a potato, or a glass of red wine and a cup of cold coffee.

Herz discovered you can't smell when you are in a deep sleep which underlines the need for auditory smoke alarms.

She also discovered that people do not have an innate reaction to smell and all responses to smell are learned.

"I was once told by someone she hated the smell of roses because the first time she smelled roses was at her mother's funeral. That has stuck with me," she said.

When it came to gender differences, she found women had a keener nose than men on average.

A survey she conducted in 2002 of 99 men and 99 women found that women ranked how a man smells as more important than anything else in terms of their sexual attraction to him, outranking all social features except for pleasantness.

Men, however, rated how a woman's looks as more important and as second only in importance to a women being pleasant.

"But interestingly women's response to fragrance was equivalent to their response to men's body odor so if a man is wearing a fragrance they like that does the trick," she said.

"Our emotional, physical and even sexual lives are profoundly shaped by both our reactions to and interpretations of different smells."