The plague doctor masks are not a crow face. They have that shape to store a container with herbs, the smell of it was supposed to fend off evil spirits nationalgeographic.com/hi…
Humans have a stereo sense of smell: our two nostrils work like two ears to subconsciously help us move towards the source of a smell pnas.org/content/117/27/1…
On April Fools Day 1965 the BBC aired an interview with the supposed inventor of "SmelloVision" who cut onions and brewed coffee to prove he could transmit scents through a television screen. Viewers called and confirmed that they had received the smells. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sme…
You usually can't smell your house or your own scent because of 'olfactory adaptation.' The brain is always looking for new, strange, or changing smells as a sign of possible danger and ignores familiar scents. wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfact…
FIFA 2001 and Gran Turismo 2 on PlayStation had a "scratch and sniff" perfumed disc that was supposed to smell like a football pitch on FIFA and burning tyres on Gran Turismo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scr…
The Ancient Chinese could tell the hour of the day by smell. The incense clock had a timed measure of incense attached to a ball, which then dropped from the display. Each section was indicated by a different aroma en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inc…
The compound which gives feces its smell, skatole, smells like flowers in small amounts meaning that roses really do smell like poo en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ska…
An outbreak of Syphilis caused a surge in Wigmaking. Wigs covered up baldness and head sores caused by Syphilis. Powdered Wigs were popular because the powder contained lavender or orange, to cover up bad smells. mentalfloss.com/article/3…
Mosquitoes are attracted to the scent of our body. As such, mosquito repellents evaporate on the skin and work by blocking a mosquito's sense of smell, preventing it from finding its target. readersdigest.ca/travel/t…
Today I learned about how African Pouched Rats are being used in Cambodia to sniff out landmines. They have an exceptional sense of smell which allows them to detect TNT in amounts as small as 1 oz, and are able to clear a 200sq m area in 30min where a human will take up to 3 days with a metal detector npr.org/sections/parallel…
The first person to ever be cured of HIV underwent an extremely risky and often fatal medical procedure that involved destroying the patient's immune system with radiation or chemotherapy, before transplanting them with bone marrow stem smells from a donor with a rare genetic resistance to HIV. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hem…
Coins themselves don’t smell like anything, it’s only once you touch them that they give out the metallic scent most people recognize. discovermagazine.com/the-…
Metal doesn't actually have a smell, what you smell when you touch for example coins is the metal reacting to your skin oils. nature.com/news/2006/0610…
Cadaverine, the toxic chemical formed by dead tissue breaking down, and the source of the corpse smell, is also responsible for giving semen its taste pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/…
Today I Learned that propane has no smell. That smell of rotting eggs associated with propane is actually ethanethiol, a “stench gas” used as an additive in odorless combustible gasses to help accidental ingesters to identify it as a danger. nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/…
Researchers and their team oversaw the discovery of a rat that could see, hear, smell, and feel just like its peers, even though it was walking around with basically no brain. medicalxpress.com/news/20…
The stinkhorn mushroom looks like a penis and smells like death, and that its scientific name literally means "shameless phallus". Charles Darwin’s neo-pagan daughter, Hetty, would collect specimens from the woods and burn them in secret, reportedly "to protect the morals of young women". theguardian.com/science/2…
There are 7,500 varieties of apples and this one is called the Pink Pearl. Known to taste like raspberry and smell like grapefruit. atlasobscura.com/foods/pi…
When astronauts are outside the ISS, space-borne compounds adhere to their suits causing a distinctive scent when they return to the station. The smell is so unusual that NASA reached out to a top fragrance maker to re-create the odor for its training simulations. popsci.com/science/articl…
In 2015, a flight from the UK to Dubai had to turn around and land after 30 minutes because of a 'poisonous' smell in the plane. The smell was later confirmed to be the "liquid faecal excrement" of a passenger in the toilet, which was so bad it caused a safety hazard. vice.com/en_uk/article/bn…
Metal (eg. coins, nails...) has no smell at all. The distinct smell we associate with metals is just the metal reacting with oils and other dirt on our hands. If you wash a coin thoroughly and smell it without ever touching it, it won't have any smell at all. youtu.be/BqLH-nTZEOc
Cobain came up with the song's title when a friend wrote "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall. She meant that Cobain smelled like the deodorant Teen Spirit, which his girlfriend wore. Cobain said he was unaware of the deodorant and had interpreted it as a revolutionary slogan. thisdayinmusic.com/liner-…
Natural gas is odorless, the smell is from a harmless chemical called mercaptan, first ordered by the Texas Legislature in 1937 to be put into gas so people could smell a leak after the worst school disaster in US history occured from a gas explosion in New London killing nearly 300 texasmonthly.com/articles…
Nirvana once purposefully butchered Smells like Teen Spirit while performing live on the British TV show "Top of the Pops". The network forced them to play over a pre recorded tape which the band disliked. They proceeded to jokingly play their instruments and changed the lyrics of the song cheatsheet.com/entertainm…
Phantosmia is a condition that causes you to smell odors that aren't actually present. When this happens, it's sometimes called an olfactory hallucination. healthline.com/health/pha…
Researchers sent out surveys to 23AndMe users asking if they noticed a smell when peeing after eating asparagus. Using the 53% that said "Yes", they were able to isolate the specific part of the DNA that determines whether you can smell asparagus pee. mindthesciencegap.org/201…
, old books have a particular smell due to lignin being present in the paper. Lignin is related to vanillin, leading them to have a faint vanilla scent. smithsonianmag.com/smart-…
Donald Harvey, a nurse who killed 37 of his patients, was only caught because a medical examiner who performed the autopsy on one of his victims had the genetic ability to smell cyanide. This prompted an investigation and Harvey was discovered. usatoday.com/story/news/h…
Today I learned of Joy Milne, a “super-smeller” who found she could smell a unique odor on people with Parkinson's disease years before the onset of symptoms. Scientists then isolated biomarkers in sebum (oily substance from face/back) of Parkinson’s patients, paving the way to earlier detection/treatment. discovermagazine.com/heal…
Durian, also known as the "King of Fruits" is a tropical fruit that is popular in Southeast Asia and is very high in nutrients, however, it also gets a bad rap due to its strong smell. healthline.com/nutrition/…
Silphium was an extremely popular plant was used as both a spice, perfume and medicine in classical antiquity. the high demand resulted in it being harvested to extinction and thus nobody has known its taste or smell for millennia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sil…
Paris holds an annual contest to find the city’s best baguette. Around 200 bakers each submit two baguettes (must be eligible) to be graded on quality, look, smell, taste, and crunch. The winner wins €4000 and a contract to supply the French president fresh baguettes every day for 1 year. bbc.com/travel/story/2019…
An outbreak of Syphilis caused a surge in Wigmaking. Wigs covered up baldness and head sores caused by Syphilis. Powdered Wigs were popular because the powder contained lavender or orange, to cover up bad smells. mentalfloss.com/article/3…
Bees can be trained to detect diseases, like cancer, in their early stages by sensing the disease in the patient's breath due to their extremely strong sense of smell mashable.com/2013/11/24/c…
When Weird Al Yankovic created the music video for “Smells Like Nirvana”, he used many of the same props and actors from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video. It was also shot in the same location. He was helped by the producers of the original Nirvana video. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sme…
When Weird Al Yankovic asked Kurt Cobain to parody 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' that Kurt asked him if it would be about food, and Al said it would be about how no one could understand his lyrics. Kurt found that extremely funny, and said absolutely. spin.com/2012/10/weird-al…
Sharks are called "swimming noses" because 2/3 of their brains are olfactory lobes. They can smell blood in water at 1 part per million from hundreds of meters away. But their sense of taste isn't linked to their nose and is not as developed, so often they bite once then decide not to kill. animals.howstuffworks.com…
A park ranger on Rinca Island was attacked by a Komodo dragon in his own office after a cleaner had left the door open the night before. The dragon was hiding under his desk when he sat down. The smell of blood attracted more outside. The ranger was taken to the hospital and recovered. canberratimes.com.au/stor…
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