AromAtom is for everyone. At its most basic level, its primary aim is to demystify science by presenting it as a fun and accessible experience that anybody can participate in, regardless of age, education or background. Using the olfactory sense as a tool to engage the imagination, participants are taken on a space journey during which they discover the Universe, by smelling a number of odours related to the composition of the planets and moons of the Solar System, and to the accounts of Apollo and ISS astronauts.

The AromAtom Journey

The AromAtom journey takes you on a tour of our Solar System and beyond, stopping at places such as our Moon, Mars, Jupiter, comets and asteroids, the rings of Saturn and the spiral arms of the Milky Way, to explore their surfaces, atmospheres and histories.

At each “stop” you are surrounded by images of the place where you are and you are given a number of things to smell, which give an approximation of what being in that planet or part of the galaxy might be like. As you smell, you can read or hear about the odours you are smelling, and also how and why those odours might be found at different space locations. Basic chemistry, astronomy, physics and geology concepts are weaved into the story to help you form a realistic picture of the part of space where you are and give context to the experience.

The tour ends with a scent that combines the various stops along the AromAtom journey combined into one single fragrance that can be worn as a perfume or used as room fragrance. Of course, it had to be named ‘Out of this World’, and it takes you all the way from Earth to the heart of the Milky Way; I like to think of it as the T.A.R.D.I.S. of the perfume world!

The AromAtom journey can also be delivered as a table-top activity in smaller spaces.

Image (right): AromAtom activities at the Science Museum in London during the Summer of Space Family Festival in summer 2019.

Who is Marina?

Marina is one of those rare creatures, a scientist-artist, or an artist-scientist, who has a passion for space and for making science accessible and fun, especially for children.

As a child, she loved biology and natural sciences, but she gave up on STEM subjects as a teenager after a lack of encouragement from her teachers, who told her that science subjects were clearly too difficult for her to grasp, and that she was ‘not made for it’ and should focus on more artistic pursuits. She believed them, and chose to focus on languages, business studies, and on her passion for everything smelly, which lead her to become an award-winning perfumer with a successful career in the fragrance industry.

Fortunately, she rediscovered science in her mid thirties and, at forty, she went to university for he first time to study a BSc in Planetary Science and Astronomy at Birkbeck, University of London. It was there that she developed an unwavering interest in science communication and outreach. Marina is now a Doctoral Researcher studying a PhD in Astrobiology at the University of Westminster. With AromAtom, she hopes to make science fun and engaging for all, but especially for children and teenagers who might be struggling with difficult subjects just as she did, and to encourage them not to give up.

The sense of smell

Creating the ‘smells of space’ was inevitable for Marina, since the two main things that occupy most of her time are studying space and the creation of fragrance. After almost thirty years working with fragrance and researching the sense of smell, she has witnessed first-hand the effect that olfaction and smells have on people, from helping them to learn difficult concepts, to recalling events, places and information by simply smelling the right things. Research on the role of the olfactory sense in education has also found that aromatic stimulus may play a crucial role in cognitive learning.

During the AtomAtom experience, different smells are used not just to enhance the learning experience, but also to engage the imagination and prompt participants to ask questions and offer their thoughts and ideas, making the experience inclusive and interactive.

If you would like to include AromAtom in your science outreach and public engagement events please get in touch with Marina at

aromatom @ mail.com