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Written primarily for chemists as a guide to the molecular basis of odours, Gunther Ohloff’s Scent and Fragrances (Springer-Verlag, £55.50, ISBN 3540 57108 6) incorporates an epigrammatic but highly detailed dossier of natural odorants and their structural relationships. In much more leisurely style, Ohloff (translated by Wilhelm Pickenhagen and Brian Lawrence) also reviews our scientific understanding of olfaction. As a reference work, this translation is inevitably impaired by the five-year gap since the original was published in German.