Chapter 8

As many people already mentioned, I noticed this to be a really short chapter, and the explanations were really easy to understand and straight to the point. This was a really enjoyable chapter, since our sense of smell is very important to humans. In addition, I had been watching this movie recently, in which the main character arranges apartments and homes for open houses, and I thought it clever when she had cookies baked in the kitchen to make the house even more inviting to prospective buyers. Focusing on the chapter though, one thing I found really interesting was the similarities of how fish and humans smell and how the difference is simply that fish have water based receptors, while humans have air based receptors. I enjoyed this chapter because I really had not previously known at all how humans were able to smell, and so finding out exactly how (odor molecules attaching to mucous membranes and then interacting with receptors in the nose) was fun for me to read. As I read the chapter, I realized that the reason why we can't smell with a stuffy nose when we're sick is probably because the odor molecules aren't able to reach the receptors.