This article was taken from the January issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Humans aren't top of the heap when it comes to smell. But just because our nasal cavity is a million times less sensitive than a dog's doesn't mean we can't hone our olfactory powers. Professor Tim Jacob from the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University reveals how.
RECALL THE AROMA
"Women who are at reproductive age can increase their sense of smell," says Jacob. "It's not really clear why this is, but men don't have the same ability to improve their threshold for smell detection. But they can improve it through familiarity."
For example, if you use the same aftershave every day, you will become familiar with that smell and would be able to distinguish it from a number of other smells. "The more familiar you are with smells, the better you are at detecting them."
CREATE A LANGUAGE
"The way male cheese tasters, wine tasters and coffee tasters help to recall smells is by developing a language," says Jacob. Words and descriptions are stored in a different part of the brain to that of the olfactory part. "If you've got two reference points -- how something smells and how you'd describe it -- your brain's capacity for recall improves."
For example, common words such as "green" are used in perfumery to represent a smell that comes from plants. "Woody" is often a characteristic of masculine fragrances.
SNIFF SWEAT
No one has found, in humans at least, a way of increasing the number of receptors in the nose -- but there is one category of odours that might do this. "Some steroids that occur naturally in sweat have been found to increase our sensitivity," says Jacob. "Tests in rats have shown that it increases the number of receptors, and in humans it has been suggested that the same thing is happening." Whether you want to spend your time smelling other people's sweat is another thing entirely.
GET OUT OF TOWN
"The nitrogen oxides in the air found in built-up urban areas damages your nose receptors. The receptor cells are very exposed," says Jacob. The cells in your nose only usually last about three weeks, so they're continually being renewed. But if you're living in a highly polluted area, you're going to be killing off the cells a great deal more quickly than the body replaces them. Jacob's suggestion? "Moving away from the city and into the countryside can help to restore this."
WORK OUT
Hit the floor and give us 20 -- vigorous exercise increases adrenalin, which constricts blood vessels in the nose, increasing nasal airflow. "Increased airflow will improve smell," says Jacob. "However, the nasal volume returns to normal after exercise."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
