''... odours savour sweet So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisbe dear''William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, Scene 1Breath is something we all have. Our very lives depend on it. So in a sense it is strange that it took the Journal of Breath Research so long to come into being. But, now that it has happened, we have the responsibility to see it grow and flourish, together with the emerging field of breath analysis.Dr Joseph Tonzetich of the University of British Columbia is widely considered the pioneer of halitosis research, based on research performed in his laboratory during the 1960s and 1970s. In those days, only a handful of academics studied the problem. Currently, hundreds of scientists study breath odors, and papers are published practically every month. Nevertheless, there is still much we do not know and continue to argue about. How many kinds of bad breath are there? Why do people have so much trouble smelling their own oral malodor? Which molecules are involved? Which bacteria? When will there finally be an electronic nose that can measure bad breath?Currently, the gold standard for bad breath measurement is still the human odor judge, with the nose acting as the sensor. Whereas the nose picks up thousands of molecules, and some at ppb levels, it cannot tell us the nature of those molecules, and their precise relation to health and disease. For this, we need advanced analytical procedures.Until now, researchers of breath odors have been largely oblivious to the parallel field of breath analysis in medicine. This is ostensibly understandable, since many of the molecules that may be indicative of disease are odorless, and thus 'invisible' from the point of view of bad breath scientists. It is time, however, that we joined forces. We share the same problems of breath collection, contamination and analysis. Sometimes, we are so predisposed to 'oral malodor' that we may miss the telltale signs of other medical conditions leading to exhalation of odorous compounds. Conversely, for those of us looking for systemic disease markers in breath, oral volatiles may interfere with sampling of lung air.The crosstalk between those involved in malodor and medical breath analysis will, I am convinced, lead to a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and methodologies. The journal will, I hope, serve as a catalyst for the future development of diagnoses and cures of malodor per se, as well as important medical conditions.