What actually are scents?
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Airborne chemicals. Gases and fine liquid/solids that get airborne, where you inhale them and they bind with chemical receptors in your nose.
Try not to think about it too hard next time you walk into a well-used bathroom.
When you smell something, it’s because molecules are entering your sinus cavity and interacting with your scent receptors. The shape of the scent molecule, and it’s atomic composition, will determine which receptor it binds to and what smell you detect!
Yes, smelling poop means you’re inhaling a small amount of poop molecules….. sorry
Scents are basically the small bits of particular chemicals that come off of a particular object. In your nose you basically have a very small area under the brain where you detect smells that trigger nerves that go through small holes into the brain.
Let’s say you smell a piece of poo on the side of the road. There will be hundreds of thousands of different chemicals but only a small handful of them will actually be able to make it into the air and to your nose. Most of them are too heavy or by some other property cannot escape for the poo.
Chemically this is much more intricate.
A “scent” is a smell that something has. Things smell because tiny molecules on them fall off and are carried by the movement of air into your nose. When they get into your nose, they tickle proteins on cells in your nose that respond to different shapes of molecules bumping into them, and these stimulate nerve cells that signal your brain to sense a smell. Most scents aren’t just one molecule, but a mixture of many different ones that tickle differently.
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