Posted on 12/19/2006 10:29:09 AM PST by Froufrou
Humans can follow scent trails across a field in the same way that dogs can and they improve with practice a intriguing new field study has revealed. Jess Porter and Noam Sobel at the University of California in Berkeley, US, and colleagues tested whether 32 people were able to follow a 10-metre-long scent trail of chocolate essence through open grass using only their noses. Two-thirds of them could.
They then trained four of the subjects three times a day for three days over a two week period to see whether they improved with practice. After training the subjects followed the trail more accurately and at more than double the speed.
Sensory biologists have long-argued about whether mammals compare the scent inputs coming into each nostril in order to localise where a smell is coming from, in the same way they use their left and right ears. Other animals, such as lobsters, do this by waving their sensor-studded antennae across a scent plume in order to study it, but some had thought that mammalian nostrils were too close together for this to work. Porters team used an imaging technique to establish that the two nostrils do indeed inhale air from distinct, non-overlapping areas of space.
As for whether humans could ever get as good as dogs at tracking a scent, Sobel says the biggest problems seems to be getting our noses close to the ground while still being able to move quickly. Crawling seems to be the rate limiting step, he says. The team now plans to study the ability of humans to track scents while standing up.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Silly Science ping.
Why just today, I sniffed out some Christmas cookies in our office kitchen. MMMMM. Good.
What smell is this
That slowly drifts
My sister must be baking
The cookies sweet
and Chocolate Treats
She started out making
This, This is smoke I smell
I run from the bedroom and loudly yell
Haste, Haste I hear a blast
The microwave exploded.
That's pretty good! How ya doon? Staying outa tbl?
You know it. :) Merry Christmas to you and yours Froufrou.
Merry Christmas to you, 'teen! I hope Santa brings you everything your heart desires! ;o)
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