Name: How do we smell?
Uploaded: 2019-02-22T18:56:14Z
Duration: 4 min 4 s
Description: An adult human can distinguish up to 10,000 odors. You use your nose to figure out what to eat, what to buy and even when it's time to take a shower. But how do the molecules in the air get translated into smells in your brain? Rose Eveleth charts the smelly journey through your olfactory epithelium and explains why scent can be so subjective. [Directed by Igor Coric, narrated by Rose Eveleth].

Rose Eveleth: How do we smell?

How do we smell?

An adult human can distinguish up to 10,000 odors. You use your nose to figure out what to eat, what to buy and even when it's time to take a shower. But how do the molecules in the air get translated into smells in your brain? Rose Eveleth charts the smelly journey through your olfactory epithelium and explains why scent can be so subjective. [Directed by Igor Coric, narrated by Rose Eveleth].

Smell is the first sense people use at birth, with one in fifty genes devoted to it. An adult can detect around 10,000 distinct odors, thanks to millions of specialized neurons in the nose. This sense connects directly to brain regions that shape memories and emotions, bypassing the relay center used by sight and sound. Individual experience of smell varies dramatically, affecting not just what people notice, but even how they taste food.