How do mosquitoes smell us out? And how can we stop them? A new study offers a surprising answer to the first question — and hope for better preventive strategies as a result. LWA/Getty Images hide caption
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sense of smell
Her Incredible Sense Of Smell Is Helping Scientists Find New Ways To Diagnose Disease
Dogs' olfactory capacity — they can sniff in parts per trillion — primes them to detect disease. Kayla Dear/Getty Images/EyeEm hide caption
Researcher Alexandra Horowitz plays with her dogs Finnegan and Upton. She studies how dog's sense of smell influences their view of the world. Vegar Abelsnes/ Courtesy of Alexandra Horowitz hide caption
Turns out humans are better at smelling than you might think. CSA Images/ Color Printstock Col/Vetta/Getty Images hide caption
Molecules in wine stimulate thousands of taste and odor receptors, sending a flavor signal to the brain that triggers massive cognitive computation involving pattern recognition, memory, value judgment, emotion and, of course, pleasure. Alex Reynolds/NPR hide caption
Parkinson's disease, smoking, certain head injuries and even normal aging can influence our sense of smell. But certain patterns of loss in the ability to identify odors seem pronounced in Alzheimer's, researchers say. CSA Images/Color Printstock Collection/Getty Images hide caption
A Sniff Test For Alzheimer's Checks For The Ability To Identify Odors
If you can't smell this, you could be in big trouble. Henrik Sorensen/Getty Images hide caption
Your schnoz deserves more respect. epSos .de/Flickr hide caption
Research in mice offers new clues as to why Harold and Kumar were so motivated to get to White Castle. Todd Plitt/Getty Images hide caption
Take a whiff of those pears and peaches: All white wines have a citrus aroma, but some also emit tropical or more subtle fruit flavors, Richard Betts explains in his book. Text copyright 2013 by Richard Betts. Illustrations copyright (c) 2013 by Wendy MacNaughton. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. hide caption
Our class of newbies learns how to pick up that buttery taste in a glass of chardonnay. Heather Rousseau/NPR hide caption
Now we know why we'll never see a common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) sitting on a beet. Jan Polabinski/iStockphoto.com hide caption