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Comment by dnautics | Hacker News Reader

the title for the post article is unfortunate, rain gets its distinctive smell largely from geosmin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosmin

this is just the mechanism by which rain's smell is particularly intense.

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I get so excited when it's supposed to rain, especially in the summer.

That ozone smell before, and that earthy smell (which I now now is geosmin) after. It's so awesome.

I wish I could bottle it and do bumps to my noses content.

> I wish I could bottle it and do bumps to my noses content.

I never knew I wanted this before, but now it's all I want. I'd absolutely buy a bottle of that.

I knew I had this link in my bookmarks for a reason...

http://www.demeterfragrance.com/704174/products/Rain.html

In high concentrations, geosmin smells terrible, so be careful. I worked with soil bacteria and I spilled some on my shirt and for months after it would reek horribly after sweating through it, problem was I couldn't identify which shirt it was until after I got sweaty (body heat + moisture), I think. This was a problem because I would go social dancing, change into the shirt, and then after a few minutes notice a horrifying smell on myself.

I hate perfume is the real thing.

http://cbihateperfume.com/

(CB worked at Demeter, there he created all the fragances but left, now has his own company) Read about CB, very interesting profile.

agreed. a bit hyperbole, as some people might already be familiar with: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor

That's a really sound scientific backing. Now I know what causes the smell after a light drizzle. I'll even link my friends to this article and they'll think I'm cool for knowing that! :)

Thanks!

The title uses the word "how", as in "the mechanism by which", not "whence", as in "where it comes from". In that respect it's accurate, not unfortunate.

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