The sense oft smell must be one of the oldest senses, think of small entities swimming in some "primordial" soup looking for nutritious stuff.

What I found most interesting to learn about our sense of smell some years ago is that "We Smell With Every Organ In Our Body, Not Just Our Noses" cf. https://www.ravishly.com/2014/10/16/smell-nose-olfactory-rec...

I was hoping to read an article on how smells guide our bio-chemistry, but it’s more a historical piece.

Sense of smell strikes me as the sense with the greatest discrepency between individuals. Some are incredibly attuned, others are completely oblivious to it.

Clearly the piece is written by somebody very passionate about their own sense of smell.

I began smelling (ha!) much more acutely after living for a few years with some country bumpkins in Seattle. We would take walks together and they could smell mushrooms, flowers, animals, and other things on the wind that I was not privy too.

I think in cities we just aren’t taught to use our noses so that muscle doesn’t get exercised.

> I think in cities we just aren’t taught to use our noses so that muscle doesn’t get exercised.

We are taught to use our noses for different things. Smell of piss, feces, gas, garbage, etc.

> “The most crucial finding of this data set is really to appreciate that there are differences in olfactory perception,”

Honestly, I'm shocked to learn that. Shocked!