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

[Rob Fertner]

The average human being is able to recognize approximately 10,000 different
odors: Our sense of smell is so powerful that when you smell skunk, you are
smelling 0.000,000,000,000,071 of an ounce of scent.
It is important to understand that throughout every day and night of our
lives we smell a wide variety of odors without being aware of them at all:
We go about our activities, breathing in and out, as an infinite number of
chemical molecules interact subliminally with our odor receptors. Only when
an odor irritates or pleases us or acts as a sudden reminder of the past do
we pause to take notice.
People recall smells with a 65% accuracy after a year, while the visual
recall of photos sinks to about 50% after only three months: Our odor
memories frequently have strong emotional qualities and are associated with
the good or bad experiences in which they occurred. Olfaction is handled by
the same part of the brain (the limbic system) that handles memories and
emotions. Therefore, we often find that we can immediately recognize and
respond to smells from childhood such as the smell of clean sheets, cookies
baking in the oven, the smell of new books or a musty room in Grandma's
house. Very often we cannot put a name to these odors yet they have a strong
emotive association even if they cannot be specifically identified.

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Peter Hirst
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 11:35 PM
To: mspencer at tallships.ca; Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge][OT] Re: The Smell of Space - sorta OT

Waaaall, I'm no Croecopia, but I'll bet itd take a lot more molecules than 
an average EVA collects from space, diluted by the re-press air and then by 
the ambient air of the cabin, to register on the human olfactory receptors 
of a NSA scientist who reasons that since the smell came off the suit. I 
must have come from space rather than the airlock that the suit just passed 
through.

Keziah
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Spencer" <mspencer at tallships.ca>
To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 12:01 AM
Subject: [TheForge][OT] Re: The Smell of Space - sorta OT


>
>> 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/                        ^^-^^
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