77
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Is there an RGB equivalent for smells?
There are about 100 (Purves, 2001) to 400 (Zozulya et al., 2001) functional olfactory receptors in man. While the total tally of olfactory receptor genes exceeds 1000, more than half of them are ...
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37
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Do viruses or bacteria have a flavour?
So I think this is a more conversational kind of question. I will address some misconceptions you have, and I will try to keep it brief, considering the nature and depth of your question. One could ...
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36
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Accepted
Do viruses or bacteria have a flavour?
As you could imagine, a systematic cataloguing of bacterial or viral flavor profiles would violate a number of biosafety protocols. However, in a laboratory setting, different bacteria definitely have ...
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9
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Why do sulfur compounds smell?
Nice question! It would, obviously, be a long answer if I talk about all types of sulfur compounds here. So I will take up just 2 examples to explain this.
Thiols: when we talk about sulfur compounds ...
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Is there an RGB equivalent for smells?
There are many, many more parameters than 200! As an example, look at the nomenclature system for olfactory receptors (ORnXm).
"OR" is the root name (Olfactory Receptor superfamily)
n = an integer ...
7
votes
Accepted
Why do cyanide and arsenic smell like almonds and garlic, respectively?
According to CDC.gov and Toxnet, bitter almonds contain cyanide, which, gives them the characteristic odor, but this can be also due to benzaldehyde (PubChem), which is, by the way, used as almond ...
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6
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Do viruses or bacteria have a flavour?
Already 2 good answers (MikeyC and S PRr), but one point missing:
We are very good at detecting the presence of some bacteria and fungi in our food in unhealty amount. We detect (by smell or taste) ...
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Is there an RGB equivalent for smells?
Yes, it certainly is. But I cannot guarantee that all have been properly determined.
For that, we would have to find the basic unique values (like the Red, Green and Blue in the case of colors).
...
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Why can we sniff so much?
Smell samples the chemical composition of the environment, the groups of molecules you are sampling in those examples still exist in nature. It is like asking why being able to taste pizza would ...
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2
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Why does olfactory sensation need lateral inhibition?
Here is the paper which directly answers your question.
Urban NN. Lateral inhibition in the olfactory bulb and in olfaction. Physiology & behavior. 2002 Dec 31;77(4):607-12.
A few salient points:
...
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2
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Accepted
When something "smells moldy" what are we really smelling?
The vast majority of the things you smell are odorants, or volatile molecules; not spores. They are light compounds that have high vapor pressure (are airborne), and that interact with your ...
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2
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What is the function of smelly sweat in primates?
It's a tricky query to answer, so here's some prelim info and someone can be more specific from there:
Apocrine glands are a type of sweat gland found in certain mammals, including humans. These ...
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What causes people to smell one persistent smell during Covid-19 infection?
At this time any hypothesis regarding the parosmia seems to be untested. Speculative sentences in lay and technical sources point toward the olfactory bulb. (I have seen indications regarding the ...
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What is the function of smelly sweat in primates?
To elaborate slightly on the existing answer in which mention is made of 'genetic compatibility', there are many compelling studies which indicate a strong preference for dissimilarity in class 1 HLA ...
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What causes people to smell one persistent smell during Covid-19 infection?
Note that there some "smells" that are not perceived through the olfactory system but through the trigeminal system, see, e.g., F. Viana, Chemosensory Properties of the Trigeminal System, ...
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Is there a scientific explanation for male and female fragrance preferences?
The idea that males and females react differentially to various smells in the context of “hard science” alludes to the concept of sexual dimorphism in olfactory signaling, which has been investigated:
...
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Is olfactory input processed by the thalamus?
Short answer
Third-order olfactory neurons project to the thalamus and mediate conscious perception of odors.
Background
The human olfactory system is schematically depicted in Fig. 1. The ...
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Why do fishes have both a gustatory and an olfactory system?
In addition to olfactory and gustatory, fishes have two more chemoreceptor systems, solitary chemoreceptor cells and free nerve endings (Finger TE 1997). Asking why do they have all these chemorecepor ...
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