Chapter 8: Making Scents

So this chapter was pretty interesting, learning about smelling. Not really what I expected, but Mr. Shubin kept the chapter intriguing. I found it quite interesting how all the little molecules in our nasal path could combine to form a smell, like Neil's example of the chord. I happen to play piano, so I understood this section well. All these keys (molecules) combine to form the ultimate sound (or, in the nose's case, smell).

And who knew that fish could smell? Because I honestly never knew that. I just thought fish had sight, because if you look at a fish, where the heck do you see a nasal opening? With the exception of shark, the standard fish's ability to smell caught me off guard. When Shubin went into farther detail, he explained how the fish's nasal sac could extract odors from the water, which left me in awe for about five seconds until I realized it's just how we extract odors from the air.

Buck and Axel's discovery was fascinating also, and I am proud to know people like them continue to make these huge discoveries from tiny analysis. However, what really caught my eye was when Shubin mentioned this exchange we humans had made. The fact that we had "traded" sight for smell really caught my attention, because essentially, that's correct. The theory made me think of my dog, and how keen his sense of smell is. But despite his smell, his eyesight is nowhere as good as ours, or at least humans in general.. my eyesight sucks without my contacts. But if you take the majority of humans, our sight is much better than many mammals who rely more on scent. No wonder I can only smell a burger that's right in front of me, but my dog can smell it when he's laying on his back in the other room fifteen feet away.

Devin Larscheid