We all know what the nose does, right? It detects chemicals from
the air and sends a message to the brain, helping your brain make
sense of the world around you.
Well, that's true. But did you know that scientists are only
just beginning to discover how much our nose knows? For years
scientists thought that our nose wasn't very useful to us at
all.
Our nose lets us smell delicious
- and not so delicious - food
We mainly rely on other senses to alert us to danger. However,
scientists are beginning to realise that there's a lot more to our
sense of smell than we first thought.
Some scientists think there is a link between odours we smell
and our behaviour. One scientist found that the smell of hidden
lemon-scented cleaner persuaded students to clean up after
themselves! This was true even if the students didn't notice that
they smelt anything.
What do you think? Could odours affect our emotions? To find out
more, go to The unsung sense: How smell rules your life on the
New Scientist website or have a look at this video of a
smell science experiment.
Try our quiz and see how much you know about your nose!
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