Facts about smell

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Smelling perceives the odour of something. Although, human sense of smell is not as developed as certain animals, it is enough to put our faith in our nose. Good smells can put us in a good mood for e.g. citrus smell makes us feel fresh and mellow whereas bad small can affect us adversely and even make us gag or throw up for those with strong sense of smells.

Some surprising facts about smell are:

  • Our sense of smell is strongest at the end of the day and weakest when we wake up.

  • Humans can differentiate between 10,000 different kinds of smell. The cells which detect odours are at the top of our nasal cavity and are called Olfactory Epithelium which has 50 million receptor cells shaped in the form of lock and key to fit with certain molecules. The Olfactory Epithelium is only 2.5 cm square long.

  • Molecules from an object float through air to hit our Olfactory Epithelium, fit into a receptor, which is then activated and sends a message to the brain. If an object does not evaporate i.e. doesn’t have molecules floating away it will be odourless for e.g. metal.

  • There are certain molecules for which humans don’t have receptors and these cannot be smelled as well for e.g. methane.

  • Things which smell good but taste bad for e.g. shampoo are so because they are actually made up of inedible molecules.

  • We can associate memory with smell i.e. smelling something familiar can take us back to a strongly associated memory. Our visual memory is not as good as memory associated to a scent.

  • There are many disorders effecting smell. For e.g. Anosmia ‘“ total loss of smell, Hyposmia ‘“ partial loss of smell, Parosmia ‘“ being able to smell when there is no smell around or thinking of normal smells as strange.

  • The sense of smell actually contributes to the ‘œFlavour’ of food. If what we smell, smells appetising it will normally taste such as well. Bad smells will take away our hunger. If you hold your nose while eating something, the flavour disappears.

  • Not only does smell effect our hunger, but also our behaviour. If we are sitting in a nice- smelling room, we will remain in a nice mood, be more friendly and charitable.

  • Estrogen, which are female hormones, enhance the sense of smell which is why pregnant woman are more sensitive to smell.

  • Astronauts lose their sense of smell in space, as their sinus cavity fills up due to lack of gravity.

  • Dogs have a highly enhances sense of smell which is why they are used as sniffers to find people or track illegal substances. Their Olfactory Epitheliumare 60 sm square long and contains 300 million receptors.

Scientists say that we never perceive a smell the same way twice as the sensitivity of our nose changes constantly even many times during the same day. There are many genetic disorders affecting our sense of smell as well as nasal diseases, respiratory diseases and sinus problems and others.

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