Interesting Facts

A new study, conducted at Yale university, suggests that having a cold nose might make us more vulnerable to catching a cold. (The reason for this is that cold weather tends to lead to a spike in sniffles and sneezes, because the cold virus thrives in a slightly cooler environment. Professor Akiko Iwasaki, says there might be a simple, even old-fashioned way, to ward off the common cold,  we simply keep our nose toasty by wearing a thick scarf over it, just like granny taught us. Personally, I think scientists are annoyed they haven't found a cure.)

According to a study carried out at the  University of Tokyo, compared with 13 other mammal species studied, African elephants have the most genes related to smell: 1,948. (That's more than twice the number of olfactory genes in domestic dogs and five times more than in humans. The following animals were tested in the battle of the schnozes:- Elephant - 1948 Rat - 1207 Cow - 1196 Mouse - 1130 Horse - 1066 Dog - 811 Guinea Pig - 796 Rabbit - 768 Human - 396 Chimpanzee - 380 Marmoset - 366 Macaque - 309 Orang-utan - 296 So, why don't we use sniffer elephants or even sniffer rats?) Source - The Wright Stuff

According to a report in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, there are 14 different nose shapes. (Unfortunately 4 remain nameless, but the named ones are are:- The turned up nose The fleshy nose  The Greek nose The hawk nose The Roman nose The snub nose The bulbous nose The bumpy nose The aquiline nose The Nixon nose You can find pictures of them here. What kind of nose have you got?) More body vocabulary.

Scientists still don't know how our sense of smell actually works. (According to Nobel prize winners, Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck there are odorant molecules, but the means by which a detected molecule is translated into a smell within the brain  remains a mystery.  Theorists are even hypothesising that our sense of smell may have its basis in quantum physics.  My nose - the quantum physicist.)