Sniffing out the truth
I don't want to spoil things for those of you who subscribe to the Nature Neuroscience journal, but the January issue is going to report on some groundbreaking research. It turns out that humans are better off with two nostrils than with one. Check out the abstract for the article at http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn1819.html.
A real surprise there, huh? Scientisits had assumed that our nostrils were too close together to be able to independently track odors. A study by University of California-Berkeley scientist Noam Sobel and others reports that evolution knew what it was doing when it gave us two nostrils, and that we don't have to look like a Picasso painting to use them effectively. Indeed, we smell stuff better when both nostrils are open for business, which is a mixed blessing, as anybody who has sat next to a sweaty fat guy on the bus can attest.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm betting that a little research might blow the lid off this opposable thumbs things.
A real surprise there, huh? Scientisits had assumed that our nostrils were too close together to be able to independently track odors. A study by University of California-Berkeley scientist Noam Sobel and others reports that evolution knew what it was doing when it gave us two nostrils, and that we don't have to look like a Picasso painting to use them effectively. Indeed, we smell stuff better when both nostrils are open for business, which is a mixed blessing, as anybody who has sat next to a sweaty fat guy on the bus can attest.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm betting that a little research might blow the lid off this opposable thumbs things.
posted by Michael Riley at 10:00 AM
5 Comments:
This one was funny. Well done.
wow, anon has come around..do you have 1 or 2 nostrils?
Easy now. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Any sinusitis victim can well you we'd be even better off with three nostrils.
not if the hands are broken/missing, anon..
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