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sense of smell

02/13/2020 / By Arsenio Toledo

Wet-dog smell, tobacco smoke and skunk spray: Various factors affect how long an unpleasant scent lingers, explain researchers

The human nose can distinguish at least one trillion different scents. Many of these smells will come and go fairly quickly. However, others, such as disgusting smells, don’t disappear fast enough. The brain recognizes smells with the help of special sensory cells known as olfactory receptor neurons that are located inside the nose. Once they receive a […]

03/22/2019 / By Isabelle Z.

Watch where you spray: Study reveals high pesticide exposure is linked to olfactory impairment in aging farmers

Some of the dangers of pesticide exposure are painfully obvious – just ask the many people suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma after years of exposure to glyphosate. However, some negative effects are far more insidious, sneaking up on people so slowly that they don’t even make the connection to pesticide exposure. Case in point: the poor […]

09/24/2018 / By Edsel Cook

Our sense of smell may be linked to our risk of neurological disorders

Researchers from West Virginia have come across a connection between the sense of smell and the chances of developing brain disorders. In their recently published study, they found that movement of the wings of moths affected the animals’ olfactory sense, which in turn affected their brains, an article in News Wise stated. This discovery could […]

08/11/2018 / By Zoey Sky

Researchers built a virtual landscape for studying how our sense of smell influences behavior, ability to navigate

According to researchers from Northwestern University, a revolutionary “smell virtual landscape” that they developed allowed them to examine “how smells engage the brain’s navigation system.” The study is the first of its kind, and research results revealed that the mammalian brain is capable of forming a map of its surroundings using only smells. The researchers said that […]

05/25/2018 / By Carol Anderson

Dog saves owner by sniffing out her cancer BEFORE she even knew she had it

Dogs have a long history of being man’s best friend. But the story of a Newburyport Police Department officer and her blind dog from Massachusetts, doesn’t merely prove the bond between owner and pet but also proves that dogs are great at detecting illnesses. Police officer Megan Tierney was reportedly at home with Dude, her […]

04/05/2018 / By Zoey Sky

Ruh? Dogs visualize what they are smelling, according to research – and they are surprised if it’s not what they expect

According to a study, dogs can create mental representations of objects that they observe using their sense of smell. The findings also showed that dogs might be surprised if what awaits at the end of the trail isn’t what they were expecting to find. It is a known fact that dogs have a keen sense of smell, but […]

10/24/2017 / By Frances Bloomfield

TNT-sniffing elephants could soon be assisting landmine-location efforts in Angola

The 27-year Angolan Civil War has left indelible marks on the former Portuguese colony. The most enduring of these are, undoubtedly, the millions of undetonated landmines underneath the Angolan countryside. Tens of thousands of people have been seriously wounded or killed by landmines. In a bid to solve this crisis, people have turned to the […]

10/20/2017 / By Michelle Simmons

Don’t forget the tunes in the bedroom; study shows “sexy” songs enhance your sense of touch

Listening to songs has been proven to affect the way we feel. A new study discovered that listening to “sexy” songs can enhance people’s sense of touch. The researchers found that the relationship between music and the sense of touch may have affected our evolution as a species, as song choices brought certain individuals together to mate. The […]

10/16/2017 / By Lance D Johnson

Poor sense of smell indicates deteriorating nerves, now linked to higher risk for Parkinson’s later in life

The function and insight of the five traditional senses — hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell — can tell us a lot about the state of health inside our bodies. For example, researchers from Michigan State University have correlated a poor sense of smell to early onset of Parkinson’s disease. The olfactory nerve governs our […]

10/03/2017 / By Rhonda Johansson

Do you have a discerning nose? A new study shows that exposure to a variety of smells early in life enhances the development of the sense of smell

Our ability to smell is perhaps the least developed among all our senses. Evolutionary scientists claim that despite the weak olfactory receptors our species has, it is one of the more important ones. Smell alerts us to potential danger, helps us find the right mate, and aids in food gathering and hunting. More importantly, scientists […]

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