The reawakening of a long-forgotten memory by the scent of a warm summer day or a whiff of perfume is one of the most powerful human responses — and has long been one of the most mysterious. For solving many of the details of this fascinating neural system, Dr. Linda Buck was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. She shared the prize with Dr. Richard Axel of Columbia University.

Buck joins Fred Hutchinson’s two other Nobel Laureates, Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who won the 1990 prize for his pioneering work in bone-marrow transplantation, and Dr. Lee Hartwell, who received the 2001 prize for his discoveries of the mechanisms that control cell division.

To read on, see this issue's cover story.