Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Anastasia.fr.1 on 12/04/2007 21:39:06

Title: noses
Post by: Anastasia.fr.1 on 12/04/2007 21:39:06

how does your nose help you smell things?
beacause its only hairs and over disgusting things

      thank you
           From Anastasia

Title: noses
Post by: Seany on 12/04/2007 21:46:08

Quote from: Anastasia.fr.1 on 12/04/2007 21:39:06

beacause its only hairs and over disgusting things

Haha.. Yep. I think there is a little "something" at the end of the nose, INSIDE. And this little "something" transmits signals to our brain, which detects the smell.

Anyone help me out here?

Title: noses
Post by: RD on 14/04/2007 10:42:20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfactory_nerve

Title: noses
Post by: another_someone on 14/04/2007 13:43:38

RD,

I realise that you are new to the site (and, by the way, welcome), so are not familiar with our ethos; but it is regarded as bad form here just to post wikipedia links and expect people do their own research, particularly when we are talking about 8 year old children who may not necessarily full understand the way the authors have written a wikipedia entry.

By all means, include a wikipedia entry for further research, or include quotes from wikipedia here where it is pertinent, but if people come here with a question it would be nice if they could have some sort of personal answer (where there is somebody capable of giving that answer).  At very least, where we are talking about a young child, try and paraphrase the wikipedia entry in a manner suitable to the audience.

This is an explanation of where we are, not a criticism of a newbie who has no reason to have known what our ethos is.

Title: noses
Post by: another_someone on 14/04/2007 14:15:21

Quote from: Anastasia.fr.1 on 12/04/2007 21:39:06

how does your nose help you smell things?
beacause its only hairs and over disgusting things

      thank you
           From Anastasia

The nose itself does not do the job of detecting smells - the nose (as you see it on your face) is merely a tube that helps you suck up the air that contains the smells - there is deep within the nose an organ (what is known as the olfactory gland) that actually does the job of smelling.

Incidentally, since much of what you think of as taste, when you taste food, is really done by this organ at the back of the nose smelling the food, not by your tongue tasting the food (smells can travel directly from the back of the mouth up into the back of the nose).

Title: noses
Post by: iko on 14/04/2007 15:10:50

Hi Anastasia,

I wanted to add that nose sensory fibers
cross the bone of our skull to reach the
brain through tiny little holes...
If we hit hard on our head, the tiny nerves
are cut by sharp bone passages and we can-
not smell a thing anymore.
So always wear an helmet when you ride!
Cheers

ikod

Crossing head-trauma and nose-fibers, I found this beautiful link from Google:

University of Texas:   http://www.uth.tmc.edu/courses/dental/smell-taste/smell.html

(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uth.tmc.edu%2Fcourses%2Fdental%2Fsmell-taste%2Fpics%2Fblueolfactory.jpg&hash=e2b88ea0af69cbcc6f2a1b77abc51c3b)
http://www.uth.tmc.edu/courses/dental/smell-taste/pics/blueolfactory.jpg

Title: noses
Post by: another_someone on 14/04/2007 16:04:30

Enrico,

I hope you don't mind, but I reposted your image with some labels attached (Anastasia may not necersarily be able to recognise the component parts just by looking at them).

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Title: noses
Post by: iko on 15/04/2007 00:01:42

Thank you George,

...and there is an animated-pic too if you go to the link!

ikod