This Is Why Rain Smells So Good — buzzfeed.com

It’s called petrichor. The word was coined by scientists in the 1960s and the smell itself is a mixture of compounds. One of those compounds is called geosmin and is given off by bacteria in soil, adding an earthy smell (it’s also found in beetroot). Other smells come from plant or animal matter that has accumulated in the ground. Scientists knew that these compounds were being released from the soil somehow. But it’s only now scientists from MIT have recorded high-speed video of it happening that they think they know how it works.

Read More