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Does this smell right?
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:10 pm
by Eric Walch
According to some scientists, we don't smell the shape of molecules, but the vibration. (
Royal Society of Chemistry)
Humans can smell the difference between ordinary and deuterated organic odorant molecules, according to a new study by researchers in Greece. They found that, provided a sufficiently large number of hydrogen atoms in the molecules are replaced by deuterium, their differing smells are relatively easily detected by most people.
Re: Does this smell right?
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:09 pm
by Selezen
And just how is this project being funded??
I smell a rat!!
Re: Does this smell right?
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:14 pm
by DaddyHoggy
I studied Physics - and I was always lead to believe that (in an odd chicken or egg kind of way) that we can only smell because of quantum tunnelling (thus, because we can smell, quantum tunnelling must exist)...
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/short ... es-ne.html
Re: Does this smell right?
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 12:31 am
by Selezen
I was taught that smell is a result of the breakdown of covalent bonds in a compound. Ionic bonds don't smell.
Re: Does this smell right?
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 5:43 am
by CommRLock78
Reading this got me thinking about the
de Broglie wavelength of the molecules
.
Re: Does this smell right?
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 7:09 am
by DaddyHoggy
So, rather than "I think, therefore I am"
we could have: "I vibrate, therefore I smell"
Re: Does this smell right?
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:06 am
by CommRLock78
DaddyHoggy wrote:...we could have: "I vibrate, therefore I smell"
Hopefully not badly
.
Re: Does this smell right?
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:26 am
by Smivs
... or just "I stink, therefore I am!"