The Science Behind That Fresh Rain Smell

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2020

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scientists have known for decades that one of the main causes of the smell of fresh rain is geosmin: a chemical compound produced by soil-dwelling bacteria. But why do the bacteria make it in the first place? It was a bacteria-based mystery... until now! Maddie gets some answers from reporter Emily Vaughn, former Short Wave intern.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.4	Maddie Sifai here with a very special guest, Emily Vaughn, our show's first ever intern
0:12.5	who has left us and is now out in the world making radio.
0:17.1	Vaughn, welcome back to the pod.
0:19.1	I'm glad to have you on.
0:20.4	Hi, Maddie.
0:21.4	Yes, and to start us off, I want to play a little game.
0:25.3	Oh, okay.
0:26.3	So here's how it works.
0:27.5	I'm going to play a few seconds of a sound, and I want to see if you can smell it.
0:32.7	I'm not sure that's how that works, but go on.
0:35.5	Okay, so close your eyes.
0:37.7	Listen, take a deep breath, and try to smell the smell of this sound.
0:45.6	Oh, I can do this, actually.
0:50.1	That is fresh rain smell.
0:53.7	Ding, ding, ding.
0:55.3	Your winner.
0:56.3	Well, bonus question, do you know what causes that smell?
1:00.0	Oh, god, no.
1:01.5	Absolutely not.
1:02.5	Game over.
1:04.1	So there are a few different things that contribute to the fresh rain smell, but the
	...

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