*sniff* *sniff*
Oh yeah, there’s totally a bomb in there.
Most people just assume we humans have a terrible sense of smell.
But, that’s just wrong.
Our sense of smell is super powerful, maybe equal to dogs.
Researchers at Rutgers are challenging the idea that “dogs and rodents [are] some of
the best sniffers in the animal kingdom.”
They posit humans are right up there with them.
Throughout history, human smell has been consistently downplayed.
For example, you may have heard humans can smell 10,000 scents…
Which is so wrong.
10,000 is a rough estimate gleaned from experiments done in 1927 with 6,561 scents (they rounded
up to 10,000)!
It was a guess and wasn’t even empirically tested.
Smell is difficult to quantify… unlike the three colors of light, or specific wavelengths
of sound, smell doesn’t have a concrete base to start and experiment with -- every
nose is different!
Things like humidity, shape, size, age, and even language, individual experience, and
behaviors can all mess with nose sensitivity.
So, scientists run test after test and determine the odor detection thresholds -- measured
in parts per million.
1ppm is one odor molecule in one million!
Drinking alcohol’s ODT (it’s actually ethanol) is 10.0ppm, which is pretty high,
with some things we can smell way less than that!
For example, studies found humans can detect as little as zero point zero four parts per
million of ammonia.
That’s equivalent to dropping a shot glass of ammonia in an olympic swimming pool...
Knowing 10,000 scents is way wrong, in 2014, scientists ran a new set of studies and found
average humans can discern One Trillion scents.
They did this by mixing 128 different scents in groups, and then used math to find what
they believe is the “lower limit” of our sense of smell.
To go back to sight and sound…
We know we can I.D.
several million colors and half-a-million tones, this means smell is more sensitive
than both.
Okay, bringing it back to dogs.
It seems to me, we use dogs to sniff things not necessarily because they’re the best
at sniff, but because they’re easier to train to be sniffers…
According to the book Canine Ergonomics: The Science of Working Dogs, dogs can’t easily
distinguish between the explosive C4, and other concentrations of the main chemical
in it cyclbohexanone, but humans -- we can!
It smells like acetone and peppermint and tests show our bottom odor threshold is zero
point 88 ppm!
Like two and a half soda cans in a swimming pool.
Plus, humans could talk it out.
We could say, hey, I think I’m getting something here… dogs can’t do that.
Another study found, with the right training we humble humans can track a scent through
a grassy field, while blindfolded!
They tested human’s ability to track a scent and found not only could we do it, but their
humans got better with practice and training.
Which brings us back, again, to canines vs humans.
These researchers are saying we should stop thinking canines better at smelling than we
are.
But why do we use them then?
Because we can train them more easily!
Slate reports, a 10-week training program exposes dogs to explosive compounds “up
to 120 times a day, in amounts ranging from 1,000 pounds to 1 gram.”
Using behavioral training, when the dog identifies the explosive amongst a bunch of other compounds
they get a treat.
Over weeks and weeks, the dog is trained to smell a compound, and on repeated training
they can learn around a dozen smells.
You could do this with humans, but who would want that job?
Obviously, more research is needed on smell.
But if you walk away from this video I hope you realize your sense of smell is on par
with other mammals -- which is to say…
it’s incredible.
Are you smelling what I’m cooking?
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But if smell is so powerful, could we smell space?
What would space smell like?
Julian hit up the YouTube space in LA without his glasses or beard for some reason to find
out, here.
Are you convinced?
How do you feel about your sense of smell?