I just never understand how it works
In: Biology
It’s weirder that we can’t, honestly.
What we call ‘smell’ is a low-resolution but high-sensitivity chemical detector. It susses out chemical elements suspended in the air we breathe. Air is a gas, and gases always fill out the container they’re in. As the air fills it’s container (the earth’s atmosphere, ideally) it spreads out all the suspended gases and particles contained therein *as far as possible*. Olfactory (smelling) organs are calibrated to recognize ‘baseline’ air and identify everything that isn’t baseline.
We happen to be a species that don’t have a particularly well-developed olfactory organ. The air is full of all sorts of things with unique chemical signatures, from kilometers away. But our noses usually just send an ‘eh normal enough’ signal to our brains. We’re from an evolutionary branch that favors sight (using organs that detect electromagnetic waves) over detecting chemical compounds.
Latest Answers