What do newspapers smell like

Repeat several times with fresh newspaper until the odor is gone. When food goes bad and starts to become pungent, it is most often due to the growth of spoilage microbes such as bacteria, yeasts and mold. Odors can come from two sources: chemicals that are released from the food as the microbes decompose it, or chemicals produced directly by the microbes themselves.

Paper mills can at times produce very unpleasant smells. The distinctive odor of sulfur, similar to rotten eggs, is characteristic of many industrial processes, including the kraft pulp mill process used in the manufacture of paper. The scientific explanation for the vanilla-ish scent is that almost all wood-based paper contains lignin, which is closely related to vanillin. The smell of books might actually remind you of things. Old books have a sweet smell with notes of vanilla flowers and almonds, caused by the breakdown of chemical compounds in the paper, while new books smell like they do more because of the chemicals used in their manufacture.

Paper contains cellulose and small amounts of lignin — a complex polymer of aromatic alcohols. Activated charcoal may retain its odor-neutralizing ability for several months. So, I started regularly reading the e-edition of The Denver Post, and I am more fulfilled than when I simply scavenged for news on the internet.

Two weeks ago, I found a story about how the U. Forest Service is no longer disclosing, at the request of Vail Resorts, how much individual ski areas pay in fees to use public lands. And another on a Pew Research Center study on the average length of sermons in the U. Thirty-seven minutes in case you missed it. But the story has other interesting details. E-editions are replicas of a print paper, so if there are no printed newspapers these, too, would go away. Twenty years ago, newspapers had large numbers of wire editors and copy editors who did an astounding job of keeping up with the mass of news flowing around the world.

A gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer were then used to analyze the captured molecules released from the samples. From this data the researchers produced a Historic Paper Odour Wheel, which combined the sensory aspects of the odors and the likely chemical sources of those sensations.

Another section of the wheel offers more expansive and sometimes hilarious sensory descriptors, such as mothballs, bourbon, fresh fruit, rotten socks, ash, body odor, caramel, and trash.

The outer ring of the wheel indicates the likely chemical compounds that produce the smells. Chemically, this perceived aroma can be explained by the fact that both chocolate and coffee start as beans, which contain lignin, cellulose, and high levels of furfural, vanillin, benzoic acid, and other compounds also found in decomposing paper. The book scorpion is not a scorpion at all, though both are arachnids. Bibliophiles of all ages proudly identify themselves as bookworms, voracious readers who devour books with insatiable appetites.

Rather, the name generically describes a variety of species of tiny beetle larvae and some species of moths. Adult female beetles lay their eggs on the edges and cracks of books and shelves, and the hatched larvae then burrow down through the paper seeking nourishment and protection.

New adults eventually emerge, leaving pages chewed through with patterns and trails, holey covers, and shelves speckled with little piles of sawdust- or sand-like frass, or excreta. During the first part of the 20th century, scientist and bookworm aficionado William R. Reinicke identified and studied approximately different kinds of bookworms. Naturally, different species have different nutritional and environmental needs.

Woodborers, such as the furniture beetle or woodworm Anobium punctatum , the deathwatch beetle Xestobium rufovillosum , and the Mexican book beetle Catorama herbarium , eat paper, cardboard, and wooden shelving. Others, such as the drugstore beetle or biscuit beetle Stegobium paniceum , survive on, among other things, the starches in natural fibers found in books and boxes.

The carpet beetle Anthrenus verbasci feeds mainly on paper and animal products, including leather, horn, wool, hair, dried blood or food, glues, and the bodies of rodents and insects that have died in or among the books. Spider beetles, moth larvae, cockroaches, and other menaces are compelled to feast on adhesives and treatments that contain gelatin or other animal products.

The rooms and furniture that books are stored in and around can also endanger them. Species of wood-boring weevils attracted to damp shelves will chomp right through the books they house. Hot and humid environments, spaces with poor air circulation, or places prone to leaks, such as basements and attics, are all problematic. Damp paper also breeds microscopic mold, which serves as food for silverfish and book lice.

Termites will bore through and feed on wooden book boards and furnishings. Not all bookworms pose the same kinds of danger. Beetles can produce neat, tiny round holes, frequently along the spines of books; but they are also capable of mazes of destruction that meander through the helpless pages.

Silverfish graze across the surface of paper and cloth, which leads to a scraped appearance or irregular holes. Some pests burrow straight down; some appear to wander erratically, almost calligraphically. Some trails can seem to resemble lace; others call to mind a Rorschach test or land elevations on a map.

Mice shred paper for nests, and their feces and urine pose the threat of disease. Besides the holes, the excretions and secretions of pests can stain pages, lure other pests, or leave a smell—and not the good kind.

Bookworms have been the scourge of libraries and book owners for millennia. Early scribes used parchment, a writing medium usually made from the untanned skins of goats and sheep. Vellum, a finer-quality version, is made from the skins of calves. Their appetites and habits were recorded as far back as ancient Greece. Bookworms were still annoying scholars 2, years later. Natural philosopher Robert Hooke devotes an engraving to the bookworms he studied under early microscopes in his Micrographia These days, ammonia-based pastes and alum additives repel book-eating pests, so bookworms tend to be more of a problem for rare-book curators and collectors.

In the age of e-books and tablets the idiosyncrasies of a printed book, let alone a decaying one, are erased. There is, of course, a trade-off to innovation.