The vibration theory received possible support from a 2004 paper published in the journal Organic Biomolecular Chemistry by Takane and Mitchell, which shows that odor descriptions in the olfaction literature correlate more strongly with vibrational frequency than with molecular shape.

Biophysical simulations published in Physical Review Letters in 2007 suggest that Turin's proposal is viable from a physics standpoint. In addition, tests with animals have shown fish and insects able to distinguish isotopes by smell. (Turin's research paper was published instead in Senses.) Nevertheless, two years after publishing the Vosshall paper and the accompanying editorial, the news website of Nature published an article about a study that supported Turin's theory: 'A controversial theory of how we smell, which claims that our fine sense of odour depends on quantum mechanics, has been given the thumbs up by a team of physicists.' Philosopher of science Miriam Solomon of Temple University, who reviewed Turin's own book in Science, has suggested that Nature Neuroscience may have been defensive about the positive publicity surrounding Turin's theory because Nature, the parent journal, rejected Turin's original article. The study was accompanied by an editorial, which considered the work of Keller and Vosshall to be 'refutation of a theory that, while provocative, has almost no credence in scientific circles.' It continued, 'The only reason for the authors to do the study, or for Nature Neuroscience to publish it, is the extraordinary - and inappropriate - degree of publicity that the theory has received from uncritical journalists.' The journal also published a review of The Emperor of Scent, calling Chandler Burr's book about Turin and his theory 'giddy and overwrought.'

However, experimental tests published in Nature Neuroscience in 2004 by Keller and Vosshall failed to support this prediction, with human subjects unable to distinguish acetophenone and its deuterated counterpart. showed humans able to distinguish benzaldehyde from its deuterated version. Turin suggested that a plausible mechanism for such a molecular spectroscope could be inelastic electron tunneling.Ī major prediction of Turin's theory is the isotope effect: that the normal and deuterated versions of a compound should smell different due to unique vibration frequencies, despite having the same shape. Since 1996 Turin has been the leading proponent of the vibration theory of olfaction, which proposes that the vibrational spectroscopic properties of molecules can be an important determinant of their associated smells, rather than just the specific ' lock and key' ligand binding proposed by the orthodox shape theory of olfaction.

The secret of scent luca turin