News Scotsman – 18-Dec-06 00:13 GMT:
HUMANS could develop bloodhound-like skills if they spent more time detecting scents, scientists said yesterday.
New research shows people can follow trails across countryside like dogs, using the sense of smell alone. The study, published in Nature magazine, suggests humans are just out of practice at smelling, after people who repeatedly tracked smells across fields became faster and more accurate.
One of the reasons that dogs are so good at identifying smells is because they sniff so quickly, it was found.
The team also discovered that mammals were able to identify smells far better with two nostrils than they would be with one.
Could super-smelling be the next pseudoscience fad?
Even if we could regain our sense of smell, how much would deodorants, perfumes, chemicals, and other pollutants interfere?
Would we be able to smell the woman the guy next door dated last night?
Blind people have their other senses augmented, because there is a need for it.
I do not need to better smell myself and other humans, thank you.
However there are people that can smell from their breath if they are diabetic or have some particular disease.
Being around computer programmers all day, I have no interest in improving my sense of smell.
Note that we’re all talking about using smell to diagnose illness or track someone across an open field or deduce whether Bob was with Alice or Ruth last night. But heightened smell is not a blessing in modern situations like crowded elevators or fast-food grease dispensaries or social situations where the guy beside you tries to “blame the dog.” Most of us are better off without it.
#1/Sag: “Something like a third of our genes are dedicated to smell”.
I doubt that *very* much. If it’s true, stated as above, I would appreciate if you point us to a source.
Reminds me of the old ‘pulp’ hero, Doc Savage… trained from birth to extend his abilities (sight, hearing, smell, taste, mental capabilities, etc.)
Would do two hours every day of physical and mental exercise.
J/P=?
yeah i dont really want to smell the people I work around, thanks all the same
“There’s nothing like when a man can smell one’s own ass…” – (paraphrase) Philip Wise (former Vikings and Jets cornerback)
#8, it also works in reverse too. Thanks, but I’ll stay with the blunted sense.