A method of assessing odors, comprises providing an electronic nose that extracts measurements from odors, from which measurements at least n chemical descriptors are extracted where n is greater than unity, and typically around 18. The electronic nose is applied to an odor, and odor information is extracted. The information is plotted to a first location on an n-dimensional sample space, each dimension being related to a respective one of the n chemical descriptors or otherwise optimized for the particular enose and the measurements it makes; and an assessment of the odor is provided based on the plotted location. The assessment may be a description based on odor describing terms, or may be a chemical description in terms of chemicals that can synthesize the odor, and the odor may then be synthesized based on the chemical description.