First Post Here – Does everything in life excrete a gas? When you think about the act of ‘smelling’ something, you’re usually not physically touching your nose to it. Does this mean everything that smells like anything in life technically lets off a gas?

Question

First Post Here – Does everything in life excrete a gas? When you think about the act of ‘smelling’ something, you’re usually not physically touching your nose to it. Does this mean everything that smells like anything in life technically lets off a gas?

In: 71

Answer 1

Not everything, but liquids diffuse in the atmosphere and organic molecules can become airborne for multiple reasons.

Our bodied evolved smell because the things we need in our day to day lives emit organic molecules: nice food, ripe fruit, other people, rotting meat, mold, etc