It Smells New Trivia Quiz

Answer: Olfactory receptors

Olfactory receptors are located at the back of our nasal cavities, in small areas of tissue. There are approximately twelve million of these receptors, with each one sending their received scents in messages back to the brain. It's a little like a bucket chain really. Each neuron has infinitely small, hair like, attachments that absorb the external odour, and these attachments, known as cilia, then pass the smell message received on to their particular neuron.

The tail of each neuron, known as the axon, then passes the message onto the brain itself for it to do its work of identifying and classifying the smell.

Answer: Septum

Our nostrils are known more correctly as nares. They consist of fairly flexible cartilage, which is a substance that is denser than muscle, but less dense than bone. The function of these two chutes is to control the air temperature we breathe in, and to control the degree of moisture we breathe out.

Otherwise we'd be snuffling all over everyone. Our nostrils are separated from one another by a section known as the septum. In the ideal human facial feature, this septum divides the nostrils equally on either side, but many people end up with one nostril larger or smaller than the other. If this is severe, it is known as a deviated septum.

In some very extreme cases, if the septum is non-existent as a result of some misfortune, a person is left with one single large nasal opening instead.

Answer: Ethmoid

The nasal cavity in a human being is a relatively large area located behind the nose at the top of that noble feature. The ethmoid skull bone, also part of the eye sockets, acts as a division between this cavity and the brain. Made up of fifteen individual small and fragile bones, these are easily fractured.

This can be dangerous if any of the resulting bone fragments penetrate through the ceiling of this area (called the cribiform plate), because it allows cerebral fluid to leak through. Far more dangerously, however, it can also allow bacteria to enter the central nervous system.

The blood-brain barrier protects the brain brilliantly under normal circumstances, but this also, somewhat unfortunately, includes blocking almost all prescribed drugs from entering.

As a result of this, any infections of the central nervous system, caused by a penetration of the cribiform plate, become very hard to tackle.

Answer: Yes

How interesting is that? Our own little portable air conditioners. The human body is an amazing structure. Even something as unsightly as a nose works away behind the scenes twenty-four hours a day helping to stabilise our body temperatures. When we inhale air, it gets swirled along grooves along the sides of the nasal cavity. As this takes places, the temperature of the air is adjusted up or down, and the air is moistened. The ultimate purpose of this is to protect the delicate tissue in the lungs. As the inhalation process takes place, it also deposits dust particles, pollen and even cold viruses onto the mucous lining inside the nose. This mucous lining, which thus captures all those particles at the "door", preventing them from illegally entering the establishment, also contains enzymes that fight infection. When a cold manages to dodge the doorman, and we catch a cold, the running nose that often comes along with this is actually extra mucous being produced by the body to try to combat those germs.

Answer: Bear

According to the American Bear Association, that is. Remarkably so, a bear has a sense of smell seven times stronger than a bloodhound. Humans are way down on the list of scent identifiers. We have the ability to detect ten thousand scents though, so that's a pretty impressive figure all on its own. And who wants to be in a competition with a bear anyhow? If we won, it'd eat us.

Answer: Anosmia

How terrible not to be able to smell a red rose, or the ocean, or the irresistible scent of a freshly bathed baby. Being afflicted with the inability to smell can be temporary or permanent, depending on what event set it off. It could be as transient as a blocked nasal passage, or as severe as permanent damage to a temporal lobe in the brain.

Other terms related to the sense of smell are dysosmia (when the sense of smell perception is distorted), hyposmia (decreased ability to recognise odours), and hyperosmia (increased sensitivity to smells). So finely tuned is the olfactory sense under normal conditions that the average human can detect any aroma from just four molecules of a substance.

Some people with an increased ability to perceive different scents are able to earn their living with their noses, and insure them for high sums - winemakers, for example, and those who test perfumes.

Answer: New Zealand

This practice is known as Hongi. It is a traditional form of greeting among the Maori people of New Zealand. The greeter's nose and the forehead are pressed up against the nose and forehead of the visitor. Today, it is used more in ceremonial activities than in every day practice. The rather lovely belief behind this tradition is that the breaths of both parties are exchanged during the hongi and the souls become intermingled, and, once this has taken place, the visitor then becomes part of the people of the land. Infinitely preferable to be greeted this way at one time than by the traditional haka. That was a war cry or challenge usually carried out before battle, and usually meant you were about to be thumped good and proper.

Today the haka is carried out during welcoming ceremonies or, usually, before the start of international football matches. It's great fun to watch a haka being performed, especially if the match is between long time rivals, Australia and New Zealand. The Kiwis haka and threaten to kill and eat the Aussies, while the Aussies stand with arms folded across their chests, glowering unblinkingly back at the Kiwis. Very exciting. The only nose rubbing involved during these action-packed and sometimes violent games usually means most are about to be rubbed in the ground.

Answer: Yes

That's hardly surprising, Men are usually bigger than women anyhow, so their noses would be proportionately bigger as a result. Did you know that there are only supposed to be about fourteen basic nose shapes in the world? According to one survey carried out by the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery in the US, that is.

This is hotly debated by the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Virginia who insist that the nose is so varied, fourteen shapes are just the tip of iceberg. What a silly thing to argue about. Who cares, for goodness sake. What is more interesting is that nose shape is related to its owner's ethnicity, that the overall shape is formed by the age of ten, that the nose continues to grow up to the age of seventeen in women and nineteen in men, and, in spite of men possessing larger noses than women, women have a better sense of smell.

Answer: Sternutation

A sneeze is usually caused by various particles awakening the defence mechanism of the nasal mucous, but it can also be caused by infections, bright light, sudden variations in temperature, and even an overly full belly. Some scientists believe that the manner in which we each sneeze may be genetic.

The learned chaps put the tips of their fingers together and state that similar types of sneezes can be found within families, and that this is obviously the result of the similarity of their smiles, various skin types, styles of laughing and so on.

It occurs to me, however, that the similarity in sneezing within families could also simply be a case of learned behaviour.

Answer: Mercaptan

This product belongs to the group of organosulfur compounds known as thiols. It pongs in fact and often has a smell sometimes likened to garlic. When added to natural gas sold by gas companies, it gives the gas a detectable, unpleasant odour should a leak begin to occur, thus warning the consumers that urgent action is required to put a stop to it.

Another odourless product, carbon monoxide, also cannot be detected by the human nose, and, in the United States alone, causes some four hundred deaths a year. Symptoms associated with carbon monoxide poisoning include nausea, headaches, dizziness, vomiting, pains in the chest and increasing mental confusion. Urgent medical attention should be sought as soon as possible when these symptoms occur, to sort out the problem, and eliminate the cause.