Page 710 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

THE SCENTS WE PERCEIVE IN OUR PITCH-BLACK BRAINS

truth. Gordon Shepherd, a professor of neurology from Yale University, explains why this is incorrect; "We

think that we smell with our noses, [but] this is a little like saying that we hear with our ear lobes." 9
Our sense of smell works in a similar mechanism to our other sense organs. In fact, the only function of
the nose is its ability to act as an intake channel for smell molecules. Volatile molecules such as vanilla, or
the scent of a rose, come to receptors located on hairs in a part of the nose called the epithelium and inter-

act with them. The result of the interaction of the smell molecules with the epithelium reaches the brain as
an electric signal. These electric signals are then perceived as a scent by the brain. Thus, all smells which we
interpret as good or bad are merely perceptions generated in the brain after the interaction with volatile

molecules has been transduced into electric signals. The fragrance of perfume, of a flower, of a food which
you like, of the sea—in short all smells you may or may not like—are perceived in the brain. However, the
smell molecules never actually reach the brain. In our sense of smell, it is only electrical signals which reach
the brain, as happens with sound and sight.
Consequently, a smell does not travel in any particular direction, because all smells are perceived by the

smell center in the brain. For example, the smell of a cake does not come from the oven, in the same way

708 Atlas of Creation Vol. 3