Would you crawl around on your hands and knees to investigate
your sense of smell?
Some animals have an amazing sense of smell - rats and dogs, for
example. Dogs can detect smells around 1,000 times better than we
can!
Some scientists are investigating whether we can train
our noses to detect more smells. Can our sense of smell
really improve?
Scientists at the University of California persuaded people to
put on blindfolds and ear defenders to see whether they could sniff
out a string covered in chocolate oil, laid in a trail along the
grass. At first, people were pretty rubbish. But with
practice, many people did manage to follow the trail all the way to
the end, even when it wasn't straight. Perhaps we can train our
noses to better detect some smells after all!
To find out more about this experiment and our sense of smell
have a look at The
unsung sense: How smell rules your life on the New Scientist
website and have a go at our Nobody Nose quiz.