Page 32 - The Miracles of Smell and Taste

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sharp and rotten. He then pro-
posed that all scents consist of
combinations of these seven
“building block” odors. 14

Another scientist, Luca Turin, pro-
posed the vibration theory of olfaction, maintaining
that scent receptors in the nose work like a spectroscope,
a device used to measure vibration frequencies, and that they
identify molecular vibrations. According to Turin, receptors in
the nose are apparently designed to be compatible with the
vibration frequencies of scent molecules. This resembles the
way in which special cells in the retina of the eye are creat-
ed to be compatible with specific wavelengths of light.
Turin thinks that at the basis of scent perception, there is a
complex mechanism based on electron transfer. 15
Other theories include J.T. Davies and F.H. Taylor’s diffusion pore the-
ory, G. M. Dyson’s molecular vibration theory and B. Rosenberg’s piezo ef-
fect theory. 16

In short, we still do not know how the communication between scent
molecules and scent receptors takes place. In other words, the perceptive
processes that take place in the receptor cells in our noses have not yet
been fully unraveled.
Obviously, however, there is, considerable speculation, and in the
following pages, we will devote more space to one view that has gained
wider acceptance in comparison to the others.
Laboratories equipped with the very latest devices permit all kinds of
scientific research to be carried out. Yet that we still do not understand
how our sense of smell works once again shows the perfection of the sys-
tem in question and the overall creation of human beings. As science un-

The Miracles of Smell and
Taste