All About The Sense of Smell

Like the sense of taste, it's a chemical sense. They are called chemical senses because they detect chemicals in the environment, with the difference being that smell works at dramatically larger distances than that of taste. The process of smelling goes more or less like this:

1. Vaporized odor molecules (chemicals) floating in the air reach the nostrils and dissolve in the mucus (which is on the roof of each nostril).

2. Underneath the mucus, in the olfactory epithelium, specialized receptor cells called olfactory receptor neurons detect the odor. These neurons are capable of detecting thousands of different odors.

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3. The olfactory receptor neurons transmit the information to the olfactory bulbs, which are located at the back of the nose.
4. The olfactory bulbs has sensory receptors that are actually part of the brain which send messages directly to:
* The most primitive brain centers where they influence emotions and memories (limbic system structures), and
* "Higher" centers where they modify conscious thought (neo-cortex).
5. These brain centers perceive odors and access memories to remind us about people, places, or events associated with these olfactory sensations.

Olfaction (also known as olfactics or smell) refers to the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates. For air-breathing animals, the olfactory system detects volatile or, in the case of the accessory olfactory system, fluid-phase chemicals. For water-dwelling organisms, e.g., fish or crustaceans, the chemicals are present in the surrounding aqueous medium. Olfaction, along with taste, is a form of chemoreception. The chemicals themselves which activate the olfactory system, generally at very low concentrations, are called odors.

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Floral...Minty...Musky...Pungent...Camphorous...Ethereal...Putrid

These are the seven smells suggested by the researcher John Amoore in 1952, when he also outlined his "lock and key" theory of how smells work. But it is far from certain that these are the fundamental scents -- some researchers believe there are many more. General Psychology: The Senses

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Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.
~Helen Keller

The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water is indescribable in its evocations of innocence and delight.
~MFK Fisher

Get excited and enthusiastic about you own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire -- you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away.
~Denis Waitley

My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch on fire or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one cares. Why should you?
~Erma Bombeck

Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.
~J Paul Getty

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I am venturing a guess that we all know what happens when our sinuses are clogged or running uncontrollably! Medical jargon aside, this is a good article to review.

Sinuses are air pockets that are located within the bones of the skull and face and are connected to your nasal passages by small tubes or channels, the osteomeatal channels. These channels permit air to flow from the nose into the sinuses and allow drainage of mucous from each sinus into the nose.
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Anosmia - lack of ability to smell

Hyposmia - decreased ability to smell

Phantosmia - "hallucinated smell", often unpleasant in nature

Dysosmia - things smell differently than they should

Hyperosmia - an abnormally acute sense of smell

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