Bridging The Gaps: A Portal For Curious Minds

Sense of smell is the process of creating the perception of smell. Animals use smell for a range of essential functions such as to find food or a mate, to sense danger and to send and receive signals and complex messages with other members of a species. Despite being so fundamental for all animals, including us, the sense of smell remains mysterious. We understand far less about this sense than we know about other senses. In this episode of Bridging the Gaps I speak with Professor Matthew Cobb and we explore this fascinating topic. In his recent book “Smell: Very Short Introduction”, Matthew Cobb describes the latest scientific research on sense of smell in humans, other mammals and in insects. Matthew Cobb is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester, where he studies sense of smell - or olfaction as it is technically known; he also studies insect behaviour, and the history of science. I open the discussion by posing the question that why did sense of smell emerge an