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U.S. Scientists Win Nobel for Smell Research

American scientists Richard Axel and Linda Buck have been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on the sense of smell. Published in 1991, their research solved the mystery of how the brain is able to recognize and distinguish between 10,000 different odors. Buck, who works at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, and Axel, a Howard Hughes scholar at Columbia University, will split the $1.4 million award. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Since he joined NPR in 2000, Knox has covered a broad range of issues and events in public health, medicine, and science. His reports can be heard on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, and newscasts.