A signature set of volatile molecules evaporates from almost every substance in the world. Smell involves the detection of these molecules using receptors in the nose. And it’s fantastically precise.fn3 It’s often said that we can detect 10,000 different smells, but that’s wrong – it’s far too low. A 2014 study3,4 tested people using a matrix of different smells and estimated that we can distinguish between more than 1 trillion potential compounds,
