It seems that Bill Gates was sniffing poop for a reason. As the philanthropist explains in the latest blog post, he recently spent time smelling the odor of artificial feces in Geneva as a way to build strategies in order to help people in poor regions have a relatively better experience while using the loo.
In countries like India, sanitation is a major problem, with around 800,000 kids under the age of five dying annually because of diarrhea or other complicated related ailments. Of course, there are public toilets for people to defecate, but most of them smell so foul that people opt to go out in open areas, creating a major threat to the public because of the rampant spread of bacteria and other diseases.
This is why the billionaire decided to join hands with Firmenich, the world's largest privately owned fragrance and flavor company, to build a perfume that kills the nasty smell of feces. It works in the same way as noise-killing headphones, which normally use wave patterns to shield noise. The perfume essentially blocks the receptors in the nose that are responsible for perceiving bad odors. Spraying the fragrance in toilets will encourage people to use them as the smell will not seem offensive then.
However, developing this anti-poop smell was a tough task. According to Gates, toilet odors contain over 200 different chemical compounds emanating from urine and feces that change with the passage of time and differ based on the person's physical condition and diet. Each of these compounds was tested by Firmenich to find out the foulest one. By identifying the worst smells, the company created its counterpart, which according to Gates is a "pleasant floral scent." He stated that toilets, which were not discussed before, have now become the subjects of mainstream research.