The acuity of eye and ear is, however, as nothing to that of the nose. An estimate of a lower limit of 1,720,000,000,000 (otherwise known as 1.72 trillion), for the number of olfactory stimuli that humans can discriminate is apparently, I was abashed to learn, conservative.55 The characteristic scent of a rose, for example, is produced by a blend of not, perhaps, five, or 15, but 275 components, none of which on its own smells like a rose.56 A considerable body of evidence suggests that olfactory recognition and discrimination are preferentially carried out in the right hemisphere, 57
...more
