Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Be Your Own Bloodhound


(Above: Love the picture of the "Old Sleuth." Very creepy.)

I have an amazing nose. (Don't go Googling pictures of me. That's not what I'm talking about.) My sense of scent is incredibly powerful. How powerful? I can walk into an empty room and instantly know if a friend or acquaintance has recently been there. It's a gift that's helped me solve countless petty crimes over the years.

But today I feel a little less special. (This happens to me quite often, I'm afraid.) A recent study by scientists at Berkeley has shown that many of my fellow humans possess similar abilities. You, too, have an amazing nose. But if you want to put it to work, you'll have to risk looking a little silly.

Get down on your hands and knees. Sniff the ground. You may find you're able to track a scent all the way across a grassy field. Yes, the opportunities to use your newly-discovered superpower may be few and far between. However, according to one Yale neuroscientist, "if we go back on our four legs and get down on the ground, we may be able do things we had no idea we could do."

Interesting. Very interesting.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The human sense of smell:

Oh, it's there, but I don't really have it. My entire family enjoys cooking with pungent spices, herbs, and bulbs (garlic, chives, onions). Most of us has a preference for the most fragrant of flowers in our bouquets (Stargazer Lilies are for whimps, we've had a single narcissus in the foyer that overpowered a pesto-canning party's aroma). And then there's the opinion of the family dogs when we try to sniff things -- they don't think we're very good at it.

No reason to stop trying, though. It's how I located that abandoned bed of narcissus in the first place.

Robert in San Diego

Patsee said...

Envyyyyyy. I have an awful sense of smell.

anonymous science-fiction writer24495 said...

So cool, but I'll have to wait until a cold goes away before I can try it, and undoubtedly freak out my cat in the process.

Anonymous said...

Does this mean I have to make a fool of myself?????

Elizabeth said...

Hmm... I considered getting down on the ground and searching for a smell, but decided that maybe my roomies would ask what I was doing. Maybe they are so into the TV show that they wouldn't notice though... haha.

Kitty said...

Like Deka Wanko! XD