Super Smell

As I slowly worked my way into the 21st Century - technology-wise that is - I started listening to podcasts on my cool, new technology ipod nano.

OK, I was using the cast-off from one of my boys, but it seemed to be an improvement over my previous music player.

(Though I have to admit this is still pretty cool looking...just doesn't have the functions)

Getting back to the 'super smell' part of this post, I've been listening to Quirks and Quarks podcasts on the aforementioned nano, and there was an interesting one earlier this year about the sense of smell. I had heard (and it seemed to be a common estimate) that we can only distinguish somewhere around 10,000 smells, but is seems that newer research might push that up to trillions!

And smells certainly seem to be able to trigger memories. You don't particularly remember them, but when you smell something specific the memory comes back.

One example I had involving smell occurred about 25 years ago when my older brother and I visited England and did a bit of a tour of 'the relatives'. We were visiting the house where my grandfather's youngest brother and his wife were supposed to be living (we weren't 100% sure that we were at the correct address) but when Albert answered the door he was smoking a pipe, and I instantly recognized it as being the same tobacco blend that my grandfather had smoked! I hadn't smelled it for many years (my grandfather had died many years before this) and would have not been able to describe it (either before or since) but when I smelled it, it instantly brought back a memory of recognition - and sure enough, it was the same blend.