In locating the lost Thai boys, 2 brave British cave divers used an invention far more exquisite in design and sophisticated in decisive action than Elon Musk’s mini-submarine, SpaceX, Tesla & Boring Co combined. They used their sense of smell to locate the boys. On Sunday 1 July – just over a week after the boys went missing – the rescuers made some headway. They reached a large cavern that would be later dubbed “chamber three” to serve as a key base for the divers.
Rising into an air pocket British Diver John Volanthen, one of a number of foreign expert divers drafted in for the rescue, inspected the air as they always did for signs of human life. This particular air pocket did. It smelt of humans.
It actually turns out that we underestimate our human ability of smell as compared to the animal kingdom,
“The fact is the sense of smell is just as good in humans as in other mammals, like rodents and dogs,” claims John McGann, a neuroscientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, reached this unexpected conclusion after spending 14 years studying the olfactory system.
So, it turns out bigger is not actually better….
Humans have approximately 1,000 odour receptor genes, for instance, compared to 1,100 in mice, which led us to believe mousies had better sniffers than us. However, new work suggests the number of olfactory genes and ability to smell does not the nose make.. One study found that cows have 2,000 such genes – almost double that of dogs.
Another study suggests that people can track a scent across a grassy field–at least if they’re willing to get down on their hands and knees and put their noses to the ground.
McGann said that he has tested out the tracking finding and found it compelling. “I have got down on my hands and knees in the park to track stuff,” he said. “Try it in your yard, it’s really quite impressive.”
Oooo-key McGann…… But seriously take a minute to think people…..your nose could save your life or even someone else’s. Perhaps then we all should be getting down on our hands and knees to practice our sense of smell.
References:
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-bristol-44819101/thailand-cave-rescue-children-found-by-smell
http://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/2018/07/13/5b4875f5e5fdeac3758b45d0.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2006/12/human-scent-tracking-nothing-sniff
