NPR's Richard Harris talks about new research finding that the human nose can (theoretically) distinguish more than a trillion different smells. The segment is a little less than 4 minutes long.
If you'd rather read than listen, check out Take a whiff! You can smell 1 trillion scents, study finds at the LA Times. Hat tip to Joe!
So much for dogs! 🙂
They can probably smell a gajillion though!
Ha, ha! Isn’t it amazing how dogs can even smell if a person has cancer?
Once we were caring for a dog who vomited on the edge of the carpet. I cleaned up the bile and then we shampooed the hell out of the rug. Years went by and a neighbourhood cat waltzed into the house. Its tiny nose went straight to the spot where the stain had been. So maybe cats are excellent smellers too!
So awesome. I was jumping up and down when I heard that segment the other day. I just started reading “The Emperor of Scent” by Chandler Burr and there is a lot in there about the science of olifaction and Luca Turin’s brilliant theory about how we actually smell things.
Great book, I loved that one.