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That familiar and heady new-car smell is created by volatile organic chemicals. Chemicals that are given off by the materials used in the cabin of the car. It tends to be a mix of the tannins from the leather and the pvc in the dashboard. These days car companies try and fine tune the smell. So while you can sink into the scent of leather in a Bentley you won't find it in a Lexus since Japanese customers don't like it. (Or so the Bentley dealer told me!)

That said no car maker has gone as far as Singapore Airlines which has actually patented the scent of their aircraft interior. Which is a cumulative effect produced by everything from their hot towels to the perfume worn by stewardesses.

At the University of Warwick they use a clever piece of kit to identify and analyse the chemicals given off by new car parts for companies like Jaguar and Land Rover. But a chance meeting between engineers and medical doctors has lead to them testing samples from humans rather than cars for the past few months.

And what excites medical doctors is the results could actually help identify health problems. Given away by the tell tale volatile organic chemicals they produce.

It's very early days but in the future you might find your GP has a small electronic "sniffer" to test blood or urine without the need for more invasive procedures. All thanks to what the engineers have unofficially named, "the poo sniffing project"

You can find the paper from the initial research at Warwick . And for more on scents and science try an earlier post about chemistry and a fantastic perfume blog.

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