How do we smell? - Rose Eveleth

An adult human can distinguish up to 10,000 odors. You use your nose to figure out what to eat, what to buy and even when it's time to take a shower. But how do the molecules in the air get translated into smells in your brain? Rose Eveleth charts the smelly journey through your olfactory epithelium and explains why scent can be so subjective.

Lesson by Rose Eveleth, animation by Igor Coric.

[mandymawson]

I am so glad she took the time to explain anosmia. I was born with it, and it’s something that many people don’t know exists, or refuse to believe it exists.

[aimee]

As someone who suffers from anosmia, either congenital or acquired by an illness as a newborn, this really intrigues me. The fact that people can smell really confuses me.

[alexsander]

i love the narrator. She has a sweet voice.

[DavidCruickshank]

I've olfactomania, I'm obsessed with smells. I recognize someone by how they smell long before I know what there name is even what they look like.

[StudioAnnLe]

SUper interesting.  I knew that people have different sensitivity to smells.  Didn't know there was scientific terminology for it =)

[samrych]

Love this video! I'm obsessed with smell because I was born with out it...thank you for making me understand it better than before :)

[SageThePanda]

I knew it would take a whole bottle of wine to find the best video on the internet.

[christiangonzales]

Hi Ted-Ed! If possible, I would love a detailed video about our response to smells (just like how we get the urge to vomit when we smell something so bad like surströmming). The history, the biology, everything that will explain it will be great. Thanks! I really love your videos though I watch on Facebook more than here.

[lorddominonexus]

It's so weird and amazing at the same time that our brains can transform electrical pulses into what we know as psychological "senses"

[nj]

Damn when she sed take a deep breath i did and i forgot i was in the toilet

[samburnell]

I recently had quite a bad cold and for about 2 weeks I couldn't smell anything which was very strange. As stated, food didn't actually have as much taste as normal, and fizzy drinks just had a fizzy texture with no taste :)

[burndead]

Supreme animation and explanation. Keep it up!

[boubachicken]

thank you this explained your sense of smell so well and helps me a lot with my research thank u

[TheJodake]

I just suddenly had this question, so I wanted to find an explanation. I actually searched a different channel name, but Kurzgesagt didn't have a video on this topic. Happy that TED-Ed does.

[aceswan]

I'm glad you mentioned people who can't smell, I was born without it and stuff tastes dry, I often NEED some sort of added flavour in large doses to even enjoy some foods

[Charlotte-xojk]

The end where she says "be a little more thankful that you can" hits a lot differently after COVID

[rickyroko]

This video was marvellous, also fun the animation. I loved the Ufo-Neuron!

[theodorekoehler]

randomly came to watch this because i realized i didn’t know how smell worked - amazingly made video.

[astrowolf]

Great video! I just wish you mentioned the vibrational state of the molecule that is being sniffed dictates how the receptor is activated. This is one of the major reasons esters smell so different from alcohols.

[thescentgurugroupruthsutcl]

Really good short video that explains the sense of smell.