Ivar Karl Ugi states that ""The development of the chemistry of isocyanides has probably suffered only little delay through the characteristic odor of volatile isonitriles, which has been described by Hofmann and Gautier as 'highly specific, almost overpowering', 'horrible', and 'extremely distressing'. It is true that many potential workers in this field have been turned away by the odour, but this is heavily outweighed by the fact that isonitriles can be detected even in traces, and that most of the routes leading to the formation of isonitriles were discovered through the odor of these compounds."" Isocyanides have been investigated as potential non-lethal weapons.