Smell Facts

Smelling bananas and green apples may help reduce appetite and food cravings, according to research on how scents affect hunger signals.

Dogs can be trained to identify the scent of lung cancer long before symptoms develop.

If you're typical, you can guess someone's sex with 95% accuracy just by smelling their breath.

Out of all the senses, smell is most closely linked to memory.

You have no sense of smell when you're sleeping!

An apple and a potato taste nearly identical if you eat them with your nose plugged, because what we call 'taste' is actually 80% smell.

The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away!

Each nostril processes smells differently, sending signals to opposite brain hemispheres. Some research suggests the right nostril may perceive odors as more pleasant than the left, though studies show inconsistent results.

The distinctive smell in the air after it has been raining is caused by bacteria called 'actinomycetes'.

A woman's sense of smell becomes significantly more sensitive around ovulation, with studies showing enhanced ability to detect male pheromones and body odors during this fertile window.

The smell of freshly cut grass is actually a plant distress call.

Domestic cats hate lemons or other citrus scents.

Leather skin does not have any smell. The leather smell that you sense is actually derived from the materials used in the tanning process.

Sniffologists have the job of sniffing armpits.

The reason why old books have such a distinct smell is because hundreds of organic compounds in the pages break down over time and release chemicals that smell like almond, vanilla, and grass.

The smell of Crayola crayons is so familiar that it is 1 of the 20 most recognizable scents to American adults.

By partially filling saucers with vinegar and distributing the saucers around a room, you can eliminate odors.

The chemicals indole and skatole, which help to account for the particular smell of human feces, are used as ingredients in perfume!

‘Old people smell’ is actually caused by a chemical, 2-nonenal, that old people secrete through their skin

The chlorine smell in swimming pools is accentuated by the chemical's reaction with impurities (like poop.)

The gas that gives rotten eggs their distinctive foul smell may slow ageing and block damaging chemical reactions inside cells, according to scientists in China.

"Fish odor syndrome" is a rare genetic disorder that causes people to smell like rotten fish.