A Taste of Molecules: In Search of the Secrets of Flavor

Do men and women experience taste and smell differently? And what happens when you eat a meal completely in the dark? Diane Fresquez, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, spent a year on the trail of obsessive scientists and entrepreneurs who are trying to reveal the secrets of flavor.

In this picaresque jaunt, Fresquez seeks out the people working to uncover the truths about taste, including a brewery owner who's developed a banana-flavored beer meant to appeal to young women, a…