comments:
Luca Turin (a biophysicist and scent researcher) points out that humans invent new molecules with novel scents all the time. The fact that we can smell and speak about these never before smelled chemicals means there is a lot more going on than just floating matter triggering existing receptors in our nasal passages. He has developed a theory that what we have in our noses behaves in a way analogous to a scanning tunneling microscope. It's way, way out of my wheelhouse, but he has the intellectual chops to write eloquently about it. https://academic.oup.com/chemse/article-abstract/21/6/773/488342 He can also write eloquently about perfumes. If you like that kind of stuff, I HIGHLY recommend the book he wrote with Tania Sanchez in 2008, updated and reprinted in 2018. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfumes-Guide-2018-Luca-Turin/dp/9949885531/