 Now, from tiny fish to the vastness of the universe, my next guest will be taking us into outer space, but not quite in the way that you might expect. For the majority of us who are unlikely to visit space, Marina has invented a surprising way for us to experience it. And that is Aram Atom. Marina, welcome to Summer Science Live and thanks for joining me. Now tell me about what this surprising way is. How can I experience space in the Royal Society today? OK, so my special way to help you experience space is through your nose. OK. So I'm very keen on making sure that people use older sensors when it comes to learning and when it comes to something like space, it's so far away, so distant. And as you said, most of us are never going to go there. So the only way we can experience it is through your sensors here on Earth. And there's lots of images. There's there's even sounds from space. But smell is something that if you go out to space, you're not going to be able to smell because obviously you need to have a helmet on to be able to breathe. But the chemistry of space is out there. So what I have done is try to bring the chemistry of space to Earth so that we can smell it here and experience that dimension of space. But it's almost beyond anybody's ability, really. That sounds so fascinating. So what what have we got here in front of us? OK, so what we've got here are three smells that I've chosen for you. So let me just get them here. I think that is Mars. We're going to go to the first one, which is the closest one to us. So this is something that mimics what we think the smooth sorry, my Spanish is coming through, but the moon might smell like. Now, we have accounts from the Apollo astronauts telling us the smells that they experienced after they went out on their moonwalks, came back into the spacecraft and they don't tell me what they said. I'm going to have a go and you can tell me after I have. I wouldn't tell you, but so they've said things. And that's what I have tried to create in here. So before I tell you anymore, I'm just going to let you smell it and see what you think. I feel like it smells a little bit like peppery, OK, maybe a bit. I don't know, like after something's burnt in a room or something, maybe. What was the astronauts take on? OK, so what you're smelling is something that thing that sort of tickles your nose and there's a smokiness to it as well. And there's a reason for that. So the first one is the accounts of astronauts tell us that the majority of them agree that it smells something like spent gunpowder. So I've never smelled gunpowder, but if you imagine the smell of fireworks after a big fireworks display, I was trying to capture something like that. However, when you look at the mineralogy of the moon, it wouldn't smell like that. The minerals that we find on the moon would be pretty much odorless. So the most you would get is maybe some form of mineral kind of notes and like earthy note. So that's what I've done here. I've mixed the smokiness with the earthiness, which is what tickles your nose to give you also that sensation of dust getting through your nostrils, like it would have happened to them. So that's what you were thinking, the kind of peppery that tickles your nose. And that's me trying to create a sensation of dust coming through your nostrils. So that's why you've got here. Amazing that you can do that with like a few kind of chemicals. And yeah, that's incredible. Yeah. So that's the first one I've got for you. Fantastic. I have got the second one here. It's not that one. This one here. So this is the smell of Mars. Now, we obviously haven't sent any humans to Mars yet, but we do know a lot about Mars because we've been studying it for decades. So I'm going to let you smell this. See what you think. This is very different. There's a kind of, I don't know, acidic sweetness type of thing. Yeah, it's almost like it's almost pleasant, but then a little bit unpleasant as well. It's like, oh, I'm not quite sure if I like the smell or not. OK. And probably I don't like it. You are right. What you have here is a mixture of what we call perfume notes that are metallic and kind of like rusty metal. Very cool. And there's also the sweetness you're talking about. It's it's a kind of metallic sweetness. That's what I was trying to say. It's like blood. That's what it is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So if you think about Mars being orange, that's because it's covered literally in rust. So what I was trying to create with this is that smell of rust. That we might find on the surface of Mars. But there is something else about Mars. Obviously, the smell of Mars will have changed through its history. And there was a period of time when Mars had a lot of active volcanoes. The smell would have been very different back then. And that's the kind of smell that you might find in places like Venus as well or places like Io, which is a volcanic moon that orbits Jupiter. So I do have a surprise smell for you. OK. Related to Mars. But also to all this all the places that have volcano in them. So I'm going to I'm going to give you that one now. OK, I'm not going to tell you anything about it. Are you ready? I'm ready. OK, I've got it here. It's a secret thing that I've got here. Oh, gosh. OK. OK. Why is it in a plastic bag? Well. So. With this is very gently. OK. Approach it with this very, very gently. You don't get too close to it and then it will probably hit you. Yeah, that's quite an unpleasant one. Yes. A bit tarry, maybe? It's a bit tarry, but it's also very stinky. Yeah. If you've ever smelled a stink bomb, you have something similar in here. OK, that's so hence the ziplocs kind of escalates. It's like a warning sign there that my colleague put on there. And the reason we have this one is because if you think about volcanic gases, if you've ever been near a volcano, you may have experienced the smell of rotten eggs. So that's actually what you've got. Sulfur, isn't it? We talked to Richie this morning, who was explaining what volcanoes smell like as well. That's that's what that is. So that was. Yeah, that's very intense. And that's one of them that I don't normally have out because we don't want the whole place smelling of rotten egg. And the last one I've got here that I'm going to give you is one of my favorite ones. This is a smell that is related to not just the Milky Way, but a specific molecular cloud near the center of the Milky Way called Sagittarius B2. I can already smell it. So I feel like this has a little bit of that gun powdery, maybe kind of vibe, but also the sweetness. There's definitely like a sweet. And I'm not going to say rose, but it's I don't know, some kind of flowery or fruity sweetness to it. Do you smell the sort of alcohol as well? Or like or like a nice cocktail. Yeah. Yeah. So this is what I like to call my space party smell. So when you go out into deep space, there are, you know, so many molecules out there. Some of them don't have smell like helium or hydrogen, but some of them do have smells. Some have horrendous smells like hydrogen sulfite, rotten eggs and all the sort of it nicer. And when we looked into this particular part of the Milky Way, we detected many things, including a molecule called ethylformate. And ethylformate captured the imagination of so many people because it's a molecule that you find inside fruit on earth. And you find it inside raspberries. So next time you eat a raspberry, you can think you're eating a molecule that's in the center of the Milky Way. But in reality, ethylformate does not smell like raspberries. It smells a little bit like nail polish and there's an alcoholic rum type of smell. So what I have done there is create a blend of raspberry notes with acetone and sort of nail polish type of notes and rum alongside the ethylformate molecule to give you that space cocktail that you have at your space party at the center of the Milky Way. Oh, that sounds it sounds like a fun party. Definitely one that I would love to join. Thank you so much, Marina. I mean, not only is the way you describe all of this so poetic and beautiful, but I really enjoyed smelling all this stuff. And I feel like I've been on the stellar journey. So thank you very much. You're welcome. Fran, what's changed at your end since I've been gone?