Study reveals how smell receptors work

All senses must reckon with the richness of the world, but nothing matches the challenge faced by the olfactory system that underlies our sense of smell. We need only three receptors in our eyes to sense all the colors of ...

Flies smell through a Gore-Tex system

A research group led by a scientist of the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) has gained important insights into the nanopores that allow the fruit fly to detect chemicals in the air, and has identified the ...

Study yields insight into the mystery of smell

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have uncovered the mechanism underlying a phenomenon in how we smell that has puzzled researchers for decades. In an article appearing online today in the Proceedings ...

Odor code for food is based on a few volatile substances

(Phys.org) —The actual flavor of a food is experienced through our sense of smell rather than with our tongue. However, of the large number of volatile compounds in foods, only about 230 are involved in the scent, as reported ...

The first insects were not yet able to smell well

An insect's sense of smell is vital to its survival. Only if it can trace even tiny amounts of odor molecules is it is able to find food sources, communicate with conspecifics, or avoid enemies. According to scientists at ...

page 1 from 3