Fruits are a feast for the senses: they come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors and, above all, scents. From the sweet aroma of a peach to the sweet and tart scent of a cranberry, fruits offer a wide range of fragrances that we find in our kitchens and products such as perfumes, candles and skincare products. But why do fruits create these scents?
It's no coincidence that fruits smell so enticing and delicious. In nature, they have evolved to attract animals to eat them and ingest the seeds to promote seed dispersal, which serves the plant's reproductive strategy. Fruit scents have evolved to attract us by announcing the ripeness and quality of the fruit. In this way, the fruits convince us to eat them and help the plant to reproduce.
In an interactive presentation, visitors will learn how researchers study and analyze the chemicals given off by the fruit and how this fits into the larger context of the development of fruit characteristics.
At a workstation, visitors have the opportunity to sample the scent of a fruit and then learn how scientists use this information to understand the chemistry of fruit scent on a computer. Visitors can then smell isolated compounds that have been identified in the scent of the fruit.
The interactive station is accompanied by two posters: One explains the analysis process, the other the ecological and evolutionary background for the question "Why does fruit smell so good?".