[TheForge][OT] Re: The Smell of Space - sorta OT

[Mike Spencer]

> Since the 'smell' is really molecules of something it leaves me
> wondering just how packed the vacuum of space is with molecules of
> things.

I once sat in at a small seminar of heavyweight academics (how & why
is another story) at which someone remarked that it took a mere dozen
molecules of the female Coecropia moth's pheromone to trigger a
response in a male.  Jerry Lettvin, Elder Guru and Demigod of such
things replied, "Three is sufficient".

I don't know if the human schnozz is as good as that of a moth that's
evolutionarily tuned to chemical courtship but it might not take very
many molecules of something unusual to light up our olfactory
switchboard.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^