Petrichor is cooler than you think

[Isabella-tjhg]

Interestingly, Cyanobacteria also synthesise geosmin! In college, I did a project where I isolated different strains of bacteria from soil to test them to see if they were creating antibiotics. I ended up selecting a type of Cyanobacteria— every time I opened the plates to check on it it smelled EXACTLY like rain and it was super cool!

[arvetis]

Richard Grenfell Thomas, who coined the word petrichor, died in 1974.

[williamchamberlain]

0:46 being able to smell a small cloudful of rain falling on a parched land during a dry season or drought is _extremely_ important to be able to drink the puddles, eat the water-filled shoots and tubers, and catch the animals that are attracted to or woken up by the rain. Big bonus during the hundreds of thousands of years while we were still in the stone/wood tools period

[flimflamdaglimglam]

I've spent time in northern New Mexico. When it starts to rain in thr desert there is such a distinct wonderful smell. Like my literal favorite smell, and I've always called it the smell of wet dirt. So happy to have a name for a thing I've loved for years.

[margreetdoodeman]

It makes me think of another strong smell: grass that has been cut. There are different phases; fresh and after a day or so and the sun burning on it. Both lovely.

[Gary-uymr]

Being from the desert, the smell is amazing and we ALL love it when we get what little rain we get. Then the desert turns completely green overnight which is a sight to behold.

[dapperdapps]

So really interestingly, this also came up this past summer. I was just at a yard sale in farm country, and the wind was blowing from a forested area on the property, and it smelled of what I now would call petrichor. It smelled like rain, moss, and like a creek. I asked the owners if there was water that way and they said yes, there's a little stream that runs through there in about that direction. I smelled water from like a quarter mile away.

[Creaform]

5 parts per trillion is equivalent to detecting 1 grain of salt in 12 litres of water.

Edit: Thankyou SeanTBarrett, I missed a few zeroes. It's actually 1 grain of salt in 12 tons of water.

[janeldavis]

Currently playing around with composing a petrichor perfumery accord, and now I'm so proud of myself for starting with geosmin! I'm not a perfumer, just a collector, but it has always driven me crazy what people currently consider "rain" accords. They're usually based on calone, which is actually a melon scent, and I thought, "Why do we pretend this is the smell of rain? We should be looking for the smell of dirt mixed with spores or something." I figured I'd give it a go and apparently I'm on the right track!

[SaronJoy]

Petrichor is my absolute favorite scent!💚💚💚💚🩵🩵🩵🩵🤎🤎🤎🤎

[pan.gremlin]

Something that makes me really happy is that even though I lost probably like at least 80% of my sense of smell post-covid (if I had to make a guess, that is), I can still smell petrichor. It’s extremely faint, and it’s not every time it rains, just when the soul was particularly dry.

But it has always been one of my favourite smells, and I would have been really sad if I had lost that too. I can’t smell most of my favourite foods or even most candles even if I get really close, but if it rains after a week of dry weather and I go outside I can smell it. If that doesn’t show how insanely good the human body is at smelling petrichor, I don’t know what could.

[Donvey]

God damn Hank you had hair, lost it, and now here you are, grew it back and looking as majestic as ever.

[spcs]

I can smell the change in the air that comes a few hours before it rains, I've only been wrong a handful of times in the last year too. It's super handy for picking out what to pack for things

[frilltheunknownsister]

What's also cool is that the chemical makeup of the ground also determines how the smell is completely made up. How we smell petrichor is based on the chemical makeup of the soil in the place we are in. Like, Petrichor in Wyoming smells different than Petrichor in Illinois and those both probably smell different than Petrichor in Florida.

[GorgiamosAllosSubjectatosNunc]

YOU'RE LOOKING GREAT, HANK!!! I CAN'T SAY HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES ME! By the bye thanks for this, I love the "smell of rain." One of my top five aromas, I always was curious as to the cause of the phenomena.
Love you Hank Green, thanks for my new favorite word too, icor... Very cool.

[nurmr]

Fun fact: The memory of the smell of Petrichor is used as a part of a password to enter an old control room of the TARDIS in Dr Who. (edit: correction: part of the password)

[cookedbred]

Five petrichors and two risks make a peak game

[TheTroupeMasterGrimm]

Thank you risk of rain 2 for informing me of this before Hank green could, I never thought I’d see the day.

[DtSpringleaf]

Holy shit Hank, thank you! I always loved this word for the etymological roots, but now, with the 5 parts-per-trillion part, I have an even nerdier reason to love telling people about this word! Thank you so so much!

[mojaveliz]

When it rains in the desert, the creosote bush becomes very fragrant. It causes that 'rain in the desert' smell. I absolutely love it