For Interest: Human sense of smell research - Page 1

For those who have nothing better to do, here is something interesting to read about the human sense of smell. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_42780.html

Not sure if we should compare our nose to the olfactory system of the dog. Although Glen Johnson tracked the oil leaks under the streets of a large USA city and also the Gipsy Moth with his dogs and handlers, this type of tracking required special training of the dogs to track the particular scent. With scent dissipating after a track has been aged 30 minutes - give or take a little pending on weather conditions - and after this period only residual scent remaining on the ground, the dog tracks the age of the crushed vegetation and the dead/injured little creatures. I don't believe that a human would be able to follow a track after the scent is gone. This brings me to a question: Does anybody have research material on the olfactory system of the dog? We seem to have so little knowledge about it.

Hodie, I found this interesting, especially about how we naturally and instinctively use each nostril to separate different scents. Very similar to being in a room full of loudmouths and being able to distinctively select and listen to one (1) voice that may not be as loud as the others. Uvar, good commentary about the canine olfactory system. While we have of course had electronic scent detection systems for some time now, there is much work being done to design sensors and develop software to achieve the sensory and differentation skills that all dogs naturally possess. Your observation of the dog's sensing of crushed vegetation and disturbed earth is correct and is an instinctive, not learned behaviuor. And as you say the scent-specific detection must be learned for the tracking of specific things. About all that I know about canine olfactory systems is that they are stated to be two-hundred (200) times "stronger" than ours, based on the number of olfactory sensors per square centimeter of the canine nasal membrane compared to the human nasal membrane. I remember a comment once made to me by a friend "Do you think that we would be happy if we had the same nose as the dog?" My statements to him were that we probably would not be since we would even more easily distracted, could maintain fewer personal secrets and probably be more incivil and suspicious of each other than we normally are. Life might really stink! Bob-O