What is scent in terms of chemistry? Can inhaling too much scent kill you?
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Scent is the result of an enormous range of “olfactory receptors”: basically a whole ton of different proteins, living in the noses and mouths of creatures with a sense of smell, which can detect a whole ton of different molecules.
You can think of these receptors as a bunch of puzzle pieces, dangling their unconnected edges out into a person or creature’s airway. If you inhale some air that has hydrogen sulfide in it, those molecules will connect into the specific puzzle pieces that match with that molecule’s shape and then send a signal to the brain which we perceive as the smell of hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs).
The nose, sinuses, tongue and throat have a whole ton of different puzzle pieces/proteins which can detect different molecules, which combine to make the sense of small (and also taste to a significant degree, since taste receptors work about the same way).
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