News tagged with sense of smell

Large brains in mammals first evolved for better sense of smell

Paleontologists have often wondered why mammals—including humans—evolved to have larger brains than other animals. A team of paleontologists now believe that large brains may have developed in mammals ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created May 19, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Birds inherited strong sense of smell from dinosaurs (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Birds are known more for their senses of vision and hearing than smell, but new research suggests that millions of years ago, the winged critters also boasted a better sense for scents.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Apr 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Fruit flies can detect heavy hydrogen: study

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study by researchers in Greece and the US has found that fruit flies can discriminate between normal and heavy hydrogen (deuterium) isotopes, which adds weight to a new theory of how ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 16, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (16) | comments 14 | with audio podcast report

Mucus in the nose changes perception of smells

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study in Japan has shown for the first time that enzymes in nasal mucus change the way we perceive smells.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 03, 2010 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (16) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Robot with frog egg smell sensor (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from the University of Tokyo have invented a novel means of improving a robot's sense of smell, by using inexpensive olfactory sensors containing frog eggs.

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Aug 26, 2010 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

New mosquito repellant could be frightening ... for the mosquitoes!

In a small, narrow, temperature-controlled lab room at Vanderbilt University live some of the most deadly and dangerous animals in the world.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 28, 2012 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers find gene critical to sense of smell in fruit fly

(Medical Xpress) -- Fruit flies don't have noses, but a huge part of their brains is dedicated to processing smells. Flies probably rely on the sense of smell more than any other sense for essential activities ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Carbon dioxide affecting fish brains: study

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous systems of sea fish, with serious consequences for their survival, according to new research.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 16, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (15) | comments 15

Did a good sense of smell give us an evolutionary advantage over Neanderthals?

(PhysOrg.com) -- Our sense of smell may have been as important as language in helping to give us, modern humans, an evolutionary advantage over other human relatives such as the Neanderthals, scientists report ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Dec 13, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Smells may help birds find their homes, avoid inbreeding

Birds may have a more highly developed sense of smell than researchers previously thought, contend scholars who have found that penguins may use smell to determine if they are related to a potential mate.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 21, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

The smell of danger: Rodent olfaction and the chemistry of instinct

The mechanics of instinctive behavior are mysterious. Even something as simple as the question of how a mouse can use its powerful sense of smell to detect and evade predators, including species it has never met before, has ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 28, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Ocean acidification leaves clownfish deaf to predators

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since the Industrial Revolution, over half of all the CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels has been absorbed by the ocean, making pH drop faster than any time in the last 650,000 years and ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 01, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Stinky feet could pave the way for better ways to stop mosquitoes

With Memorial Day weekend approaching and temperatures across the nation steadily increase to summertime highs, thoughts turn to picnics, ballgames -- and bug bites. Now, a new way of stopping mosquitoes could ...

Biology / Other

created May 27, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Fruit fly's response to starvation could help control human appetites

Biologists at UC San Diego have identified the molecular mechanisms triggered by starvation in fruit flies that enhance the nervous system's response to smell, allowing these insects and presumably vertebrates—including ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 31, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A common thread: No pain, no smell

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a recent study published in Nature by Jan Weiss and Frank Zufall of the University of Saarland, School of Medicine, a connection has been made between the inability to feel pain and anosmia - the inabil ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Olfaction

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.

For more information about Olfaction, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: brain