From the University of East Anglia: Cloning the smell of the seaside.

Scientists from the University of East Anglia have discovered exactly what makes the seaside smell like the seaside – and bottled it!

The age-old mystery was unlocked thanks to some novel bacteria plucked from the North Norfolk coast.

Prof Andrew Johnston and his team at UEA isolated this microbe from the mud at Stiffkey saltmarsh to identify and extract the single gene responsible for the emission of the strong-smelling gas, dimethyl sulphide (DMS).

"On bracing childhood visits to the seaside we were always told to ‘breathe in that ozone, it’s good for you’," said Prof Johnston.

"But we were misled, twice over. Firstly because that distinctive smell is not ozone, it is dimethyl sulphide. And secondly, because inhaling it is not necessarily good for you."

DMS is [continue]