Tag Archives: memory

Eclipse Effect

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Sophie Weston revisits her first solar eclipse and is moved all over again.

Image by Peter Schmidt from Pixabay

This week it has been almost impossible to avoid the eclipse effect on broadcast news and social media. I didn’t take much notice at first.

Now, this is odd. I’m normally very hopeful over such things. The moment some friendly stargazer announces a blood moon or a meteor shower, it goes into the diary. Then I get out my binoculars and go out onto my fourth floor balcony at whatever ungodly hour is foretold and follow whatever celestial map and directions I have managed to acquire.

Stuttgart Observatory Image by Donnawetta from Pixabay

With very little success, I have to admit. For the balcony in question is in central London.

The light pollution is pretty much total. And the chances of the skies over this wet northern land being overcast at any time of day are tending towards 90% certainty.

When I’m trying to get in touch with my inner astronomer, anyway. I am therefore used to disappointment. The beautiful image above is pure wish fulfillment. Continue reading →

How Smell Evokes Memory and Emotion

smell evokes memory with oranges and fire

When I was a child, Christmas was the smell of oranges and cigars and the Christmas tree, resinous and strange.  Put any two of them together and it still bounces me right back into the past, bringing with it firelight, the bustle of friendly company, a sense of holding my breath in excitement. Smell is the first route by which I recall emotion.

Why smell evokes memory : the science bit

There is a reason for this, I find. Olfactory neurones in the upper part of the nose generate an impulse which signals the limbic system, that part of the brain which controls not only memory but also emotion, mood and behaviour.  Supposedly, this is one of the most primitive parts of the brain.

Smell — the fallen angel of senses?

Apparently, Helen Keller called smell “the fallen angel of the human senses” because we don’t use it any more to tell us there’s a tiger in the area. And I agree that we live in an intensely visual age, with more communication illustrated than ever before.

smell evokes memory when couples kissBut we do still smell food that has gone off.

And, even more important to the romantic novelist, smell is an important part of sexual attraction. Continue reading →