How many smells can we smell? Detailed answer

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How many smells can we smell? Detailed answer

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How many smells can we smell?

Compared to many animals, humans do not have a highly developed sense of smell. In fact, in the process of evolution, man's sense of smell became weaker and weaker, until he became almost entirely dependent on visual sensations. The dog, on the other hand, lives almost exclusively on its sense of smell.

Here are some comparisons that will show how far behind a person is in this regard. In our nose, a membrane of sensory cells responsible for smell occupies an area the size of a fingernail on both sides. In a dog, this membrane, if spread, will cover more than half of the body of the dog itself!

In the human brain, the cells that distinguish between odors occupy a twentieth part. In dogs, a third of the brain is connected with smell. A person's weak sense of smell, of course, is compensated by a higher development of other sense organs, abilities and capabilities. In our nose, odors are perceived by sensitive hairs on the olfactory membrane. These "antennas" do not just stick out of the membrane, but are immersed by their roots in a special mucous layer that covers it. This membrane is always wet. If it dries, we won't be able to smell anymore!

By the way, when we just breathe, the air stream does not pass by this membrane, and therefore we have to sniff - let air pass over the membrane - in order to smell. Before we can smell something, particles of the substance of which this "something" is composed must be dissolved in the mucous layer that covers the sensitive hairs that receive odors. These substances must either be volatile oils themselves (eg floral odors) or be carried by volatile oils (eg coffee odors).

There are five main types of odors that our sense of smell can pick up. The first is floral (violets, roses, and so on). The second is spicy (lemon, apple, etc.). The third is putrefactive (cheese, rotten eggs). Fourth - burnt (coffee, cocoa). And the fifth - essential (alcohol, camphor, etc.).

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Where and when did the epidemic of laughter break out, engulfing about 1000 children?

In 1962, an epidemic of laughter broke out in Tanganyika (present-day Tanzania), which eventually affected about 1000 people. It began at a girls' school in the village of Kashasha - at first three students laughed, and soon most of the girls were infected with laughter. Attacks of laughter in each lasted from several hours to several days in a row. The school was soon temporarily closed, but the epidemic spread to other children and teenagers in 14 schools in nearby villages. The phenomenon finally disappeared 18 months after the first recorded cases.

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