61–70 of 77 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"with larger more complex molecules." What are "larger, more complex, molecules"? Without trolling, I think scent cuts off at a MW 330 or something.
But it's not as good with distinguishing complex organic molecules one from another, no? I.e. between various proteins of a similar size.
> But Joy's superpower is so unusual that researchers all over the world have started working with her and have discovered that she can identify several kinds of illnesses — tuberculosis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer and diabetes. The story for diagnosing Parkinson’s sounded plausible until this sentence. With Parkinson’s, you could imagine that she had some sort of sensitivity in her smell to a certain biomarker. Now…
Would it be so surprising if she just has an unusually adept sense of smell?
https://www.science.org/content/article/widely-used-chemical...
> But Joy's superpower is so unusual that researchers all over the world have started working with her and have discovered that she can identify several kinds of illnesses — tuberculosis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer and diabetes. The story for diagnosing Parkinson’s sounded plausible until this sentence. With Parkinson’s, you could imagine that she had some sort of sensitivity in her smell to a certain biomarker. Now…
That might be just an imprecise formulation by the journalist. Smelling tuberculosis seems plausible to me, it is a disease of the lungs. General cancer probably no, but I have repeatedly read comments by oncologists that sarcoma, specifically, has a distinct smell.
People with the common cold smell like dying flowers about 2-3 days before any symptoms appear. It took me until my 30s to discover other people didn't know/realise/detect this. But since I've shared it with people as an interesting party trick type thing I've found many people who could smell onset of a cold. It's not surprising to me that people can smell so much more, as all of our senses differ from person to per…
You're probably not sniffing random people to chat them up with "you'll have a cold in 3 days", right?
People with the common cold smell like dying flowers about 2-3 days before any symptoms appear. It took me until my 30s to discover other people didn't know/realise/detect this. But since I've shared it with people as an interesting party trick type thing I've found many people who could smell onset of a cold. It's not surprising to me that people can smell so much more, as all of our senses differ from person to per…
How do you do this socially? You're probably not sniffing random people to chat them up with "you'll have a cold in 3 days", right?
I have got into the habit of telling people close to me, and it gives them a chance not to avoid getting a cold, but to mitigate the impact by treating the symptoms before they've really emerged.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That might be just an imprecise formulation by the journalist. Smelling tuberculosis seems plausible to me, it is a disease of the lungs. General cancer probably no, but I have repeatedly read comments by oncologists that sarcoma, specifically, has a distinct smell.
Makes me realise there is no real way to notate a smell. How do people even get a handle on what a smell is, and how personal an experience is it.
- https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/11/the-voca... - https://www.wired.com/2014/11/whats-up-with-that-smells-lang...