How do we smell? - Rose Eveleth

[@mandymawson9121]

I am so glad she took the time to explain anosmia. I was born with it, and it’s something that many people don’t know exists, or refuse to believe it exists.

[@NOName-bf4up]

Hi i am a Korean boy

[@layla-yp8zt]

@@NOName-bf4up What?

[@VictorMartinez-lt3xq]

So I lost my sense of smell few months before covid was announced, after getting over what I think it was covid. January when covid was discovered or what ever all over the news I was waking up from a come, brain trauma and doctors saying my brain moved and moved some receptors and it hard for them to regrow in the same hole but idk if I ever got my sense of smell back in the first time before my accident

[@jaxxhadesdaughter779]

I was born with it. I also don't have the sinuse pockets behind my cheeks and my ENT thinks that's connected. Although, I do occasionally get "phantom smells" of a very faint scent.

[@TheJodake]

I just suddenly had this question, so I wanted to find an explanation. I actually searched a different channel name, but Kurzgesagt didn't have a video on this topic. Happy that TED-Ed does.

[@bellazonna6510]

Kurzgesagt? Oh yeah that guy who gave me insomnia for a few days...

[@Luffy_wastaken]

@@bellazonna6510 wait till you listen to Micheal from Vsause1

[@samrych97]

Love this video! I'm obsessed with smell because I was born with out it...thank you for making me understand it better than before :)

[@NOName-bf4up]

?난 한국인 ?i am a Korean

[@George-zf9oe]

@@NOName-bf4up we all know koreans dont exist. nice try biden.

[@BardTheDragonProductions]

You were born without a sense of smell?

[@user-bz6gh5ng2m]

@@NOName-bf4up LMFAO

[@bleu_fyre]

@@NOName-bf4up wha- I- huh- I don't- whaaaaaaaat.

[@SageThePanda]

I knew it would take a whole bottle of wine to find the best video on the internet.

[@databillofrightsnowendmass5043]

MH3D a bowl for me

[@iridiumvalkyrie9017]

Hahahahahahahahahah

[@lorddominonexus]

It's so weird and amazing at the same time that our brains can transform electrical pulses into what we know as psychological "senses"

[@alexsander7941]

i love the narrator. She has a sweet voice.

[@mateszka2003]

she sounds kind of like Vi Hart :D :D

[@smithag7901]

🤔🤔🤔but low volume

[@MCFC111]

She goes so fast!

[@phabi0]

her voice smells good

[@alexanderparra9271]

Pervets

[@nj503]

Damn when she sed take a deep breath i did and i forgot i was in the toilet

[@topaz6139]

i n

[@stalin2618]

@@topaz6139 in the toilet O.O

[@andragg]

I love the bizarre animation. Where did the term "olfactory" come from? Maybe a scientist a long time ago named it that after he smelled the stink from an old abandoned factory. Maybe a paper factory, which uses some sort of detergent that has a horrible, sickly smell that drove me crazy in the 1960's when my family went camping in Georgia for two weeks. There were a lot of those factories in the area.

[@EInc1000]

I'm not as thankful when somebody farts.

[@StanleyKingChan]

fart contains bits of fecal particles in the fart. would you rather breathe it all in or avoid as soon as you smell it? be thankful

[@WalkingWithGlory]

***** I think he was being sarcastic, but good response lol.

[@taissiobrito]

Experiment to lose your sense of smell for a while and you will be

[@ElDuderinoh]

@@StanleyKingChanit doesn’t

[@randomroyal12]

had to watch this for an assignment, thats when you know its good info

[@rickyroko1]

This video was marvellous, also fun the animation. I loved the Ufo-Neuron!

[@billybassman21]

My sense of smell is several times stronger than most people. It's been a curse my whole life. It's so strong I can smell a scent on just about everyone. There have been people who's natural scent made me sick. Every building I go into has a smell. The smell of food lingering in a building bothers me. So do people that have been sweating or just smoked a cigarette.

[@carlafitzgibbon4227]

that can be a good thing, you can get more information of things

[@NLsko]

you should do something like whisky/wine/food tasting

[@BlackV4You]

Same here!! Every one say's "Your sense of smelling thing is like a dog's wtf"

[@ElDuderinoh]

Few years late, but same deal here but with my tastebuds

[@Greyjay254]

Yeah poor me because of my many allergies my sense of smell has degraded a lot but food still tastes good so yeah

[@churrocharcharm]

Greyjay254 Its obviously a myth that smell and taste are together :L For one, you dont categorize them as one sense in the first place. And also, when people hold their nose, *THEY AREN'T BLOCKING THEIR SMELL SENSE, JUST STOPPING THEIR BREATHING* lol

[@Greyjay254]

Charlie The Cartoonist good point lol

[@churrocharcharm]

Greyjay254 Unless you cut off the nerves that help you smell and then you cant taste anything all of a sudden... Theeen theres no link :L

[@Greyjay254]

Charlie The Cartoonist very true.

[@churrocharcharm]

Greyjay254 Wait... also we have taste buds, and there's different kinda buds in your nose that capture different smells.... And different parts of the brain for smell and taste. You get the point anyways :L

[@malakalfaouri8322]

this vid was in 2013 and it said that scientists don't know why our olfactory epithelium is pigmented, so did they find out the reason, now in 2019?

[@TomThomasVempala]

or atleast in 2021?

[@006-mayurbehare9]

​@@TomThomasVempalaor atleast in 2024😂

[@OfficialDandi]

I've had no sense of smell or taste for three days now, and i've realised just how important they are. I can't smell anything at all, can't even taste my morning cup of tea. It's very bizarre, I feel bad for people that have had to suffer for years!

[@pdoubleop4438]

hi, i am 16 years old and i cant smell anything probably since birth, i am surfing the internet for answers because i'd like to smell at least something before i die!

[@OfficialDandi]

Aww, I do hope you get to! x

[@farozZena4]

PdoubleO P hey! I am too. I never smelt anything since birth, though I still have the ability to taste.

[@eucalyptusdreadlord1552]

+PdoubleO P It's like tasting things by breathing through your nose, but the taste is much more subtle. Good luck with it though.

[@JunkBondTrader]

I heard T-rex had two noses essentially, and they could triangulate their prey by calculating the different times at which the scent hit each nose. Like smelling in stereo, or with depth.

[@mai_skys]

I can't smell a lot of things. But I can still smell stuff. I have a super complicated nose.

[@churrocharcharm]

KaleaStar Same lol I have allergies and asthma, so my body works weird :L

[@alinaser4835]

i can smell your comment

[@Broockle]

If it wasn't for the hot fresh smell of salty buttery popcorn that permeates every Cinema entry way I think they would sell a lot fewer snack at the bar. Popcorn doesn't taste nearly as good as it smells, I fall for it every time xD

[@02HARMAE]

Smell, the most underrated sense.

[@juanamasielmartinezgarcia7258]

Tan simpatica ella! ojala todas las clases fueran tan entretenidas. cool girl!

[@not...posting242]

This is actually really cool I am watching this for my school but this is interesting

[@MATT-bw5wh]

Correction suggestion: At 1'53" the mandarin(Taiwan) translation means tonsils(扁桃腺) which should be amygdala(杏仁體) instead.

[@aldilavokrid37]

I'm thankful that I can smell... *sniffs deep into my doritos bag

[@kushagra5796]

7 year old knowledge is still fresh and uptodate

[@snowman7514]

Every time when teded talk about our senses. TED-Ed : You people better get thankful

[@kai0171]

who else is here cuz A. quarantine B. they, in fact, cannot smell

[@8bitsOfThis]

I lost my sense of smell after a hit&run accident. The taste thing is oh so true but you get used to it now i can eat things i used to hate but cant taste things i used to love. Miss smelling people too, this all happened while i was dating my ex and i became very disconnected after i lost my smell, still am to everybody

[@cl0neb0y2]

wow , wrote the lesson and narrated , good job Rose Eveleth :)

[@RoseEveleth]

Thanks!

[@HeyitsCalifornia]

Thank you for uploading!

[@massyfamily514]

Now I know what my not smelling anything is called thanks! :)

[@fatemayusuf8024]

Oh anatomy ❤️ great video

[@samaragonzales4208]

i have anosmia and its a bit annoying. i guess its good for certain bad things like rotten foods or skunk road kills but not good because i can't really taste the precise flavor of foods.

[@flitzkarma5973]

Why dont they have these videos in my school? :'(

[@billybassman21]

Because your text books and media at school is tightly controlled by what a few selected people think is important. If you're looking for the school to really educated you, you are setting yourself up for failure. Do your own research and educate yourself with what you think is important.

[@Jesmagi]

My grandma lost her sense of smell. She'll fart sometimes and she just stands there like, what. o_o

[@Donald_66e]

In a twist of fate, a system error directed the transaction to an invalid email address.

[@HienNguyenHMN]

Please tell me this is a full series on all our senses (all 9 of them, or however many).

[@SupLuiKir]

We smell awful.

[@Smash_Bulger]

Unless if we shower then yeah

[@vivilorian]

I'm anosmic, the part about only tasting the basic sweet, sour, etc is true (for ex, I usually can't tell the difference between chicken, beef, oriental, etc ramen, and if I somehow did notice I wouldn't be able to pinpoint what the taste was, just that it was "different"). We do often have a heightened sensitivity to the texture of food though. People ask me all the time if I can taste, the answer is yes, it's just a different way of tasting. The concept of smell is weird, my family has tried explaining it to me with little luck (I was seriously floored when my sister said one time that apples smelled.....). The only thing my nose "smells" is fumes (like with really strong paint or rubbing alcohol), which really aren't smells at all. It's more like a physical presence punching the inside of my nose...... Sometimes it's nice, like when on a car ride we pass by a cow farm and the manure smell is bad, but it's more inconvenient than not. Everyone raves about fresh bread and chocolate chip cookies, I wish I could smell those, and I also worry about things like not smelling the gas if the gas stove is leaking. Appreciate your fully functional nose people, not all of us have one. :/

[@chipfairy08]

yea I know how you feel I have seasonal allergy which mostly block off my ability to smell so for about 1/2 of the year I can't smell anything while the other half of the year I can.

[@vivilorian]

chipfairy08 I think that's probably even harder to deal with than no smell at all, because you know what you're missing then. :/

[@KostadinKody]

This is a great video!

[@funkiemunkytootiedo]

I got sick a few months ago and after I got better it still literally took me about a month to be able to smell anything again. It was awful!!! I couldn't taste anything and I swear I think it impaired my hearing too.

[@jrad1978]

Also dextromethorphan makes smells really phenomonal and pronounced

[@dimasherlambang352]

That explain why I always breath out while chewing when eating delicious food... to savor it.

[@NeverStoppedSinging]

amazing video!

[@sodapaula]

Oh! Can you tell us about ghosts and spirits? Some people said that it was real when I watched their channel. How can you get rid of ghosts? Do they have weakness?

[@christienne29]

The fact about the "asparagus pee" was surprising.

[@BariumCobaltNitrog3n]

I can smell sadness and failure on people and pheromones of nervous couples. I smell the asparagus pee smell, artichokes, broccoli and garlic too. But garlic gets into your blood stream so that's easy. I smell petrichor from miles away. I love the faint (or sometimes strong) smell of chlorine from a swimming pool outside, or a laundry sheet in the winter. New car smell is a toxic off-gassing from the carpet, fabric and plastics made from petrochemicals. It smells good, though. And babies, they're sticky but smell like warm butter, vanilla and summer evenings.

[@86Miguelisimo]

Love your videos

[@ramsesemerson]

More recent estimates have said that humans can distinguish a trillion smells.

[@zacheryshinn8752]

TED-ED can you please explain how all animals know how to breath and do this action immediately after were born and how we survive in the "uterus" do we breath in "it"?

[@zacheryshinn8752]

/mammals including fish,whales,humans,monkeys,sea cucumbers, and if sea pigs dont have brains do they need to breath? like jelly fish do they need to breath? Also...is jelly fish flesh consitered meat?

[@thatguyfromca]

But you didn’t explain how we smell the odor only how our brain determines what it is. So is a smell actually like a taste then? We are tasting the smell with our nose?

[@kenbobca]

I like this one. Thank you.

[@foundati0n]

this is cute, i like it ^_^

[@charphoto1]

How do the molecules "transfer" their own distinct information to the olfactory receptor neurons in the nose? That would answer the question in the title.

[@thepip3599]

Wow, I didn't expect them to mention asparagus pee, I always wondered why that has such a distinct smell.

[@200555280]

I have that issue i never told any one but I was so curious to know why

[@BIGDO13]

Amazing... explains a lot too..

[@SOR3C]

Great video

[@Ravenwest19]

How do molecules that bring odor detach from olfactory receptor? I mean when molecule binds to receptor and activates olfactory neuron, how does it detaches after? Or does it just sit there?

[@mobandz3017]

After COVID my sense of smell is all kinds of Messed up everything ethier smells like chemicals now or really weird it’s indescribable

[@tubedude9311]

Can you smell something so awful it kills you? I know smell can trigger nausea and vomiting, but death?

[@jayfulf]

Savory? No no no, the fifth taste is umami

[@jayfulf]

***** That google search you mentioned, you should try it out yourself because they are not interchangeable. Try looking at the definition in the dictionary too, that should clear it up for ya.

[@greensp4rk]

jayfulf I searched "savory vs umami." Every link on the first page drew NO distinction between the two. Some of them said that umami is just the same word in japanese right in the little description of the page, I didn't even have to click.

[@jayfulf]

greensp4rk Umami is translated as "pleasant savory taste" but foods that are described as umami are not necessarily savory and vice versa. They are used interchangeably but are technically not the same thing. The confusion seems to be because umami can be described as a savory taste but savory is not described as umami. Do you see the distinction? To give an example using something else, copper is a metal but metal is not a copper. In short, umami is DESCRIBED as savory but savory is not described as umami.

[@airikitascave]

Okay, so if people smell things differently, that means we can taste things differently too, right?

[@carlafitzgibbon4227]

yes

[@sakura5sango6]

No sé vosotros, pero me pone mala que se separen tantísimo las frases en los subtítulos por.... qué motivo?? Dificulta la comprensión de lectura y me toca estar repitiendo todo el rato lo mismo, o eso o tengo que poner el vídeo más lento, solo por no escribir una frase entera que cabe perfectamente... X(

[@fatmahr9]

I love this

[@TeaLeafThief]

Peeing after coffee often smells coffee-ish! I said it to someone before and they thought I was some weirdo that sniffs my own pee..

[@MissSolaris]

My friend cannot smell anything but cleaning products...

[@444resendiz6]

So if we lose our smell is it possible to get it back?

[@mavisdracula970]

Thank you for a great video!) But I have a question: how hormones could be felt by animals? For example, how dogs can smell the noradrenaline hormone in a big distance? The hormones can be released through skin and reached the nose of dogs in the form of molecules??

[@NOName-bf4up]

네

[@andrewcwik951]

Hi Madeline

[@ash3536]

hi, can somebody help me? i can't diffrenciate smells, I can smell, I just don't know what it is, if I smell an apple, I smell it, but I don't know its an apple. Is this a condition?

[@MsSBVideos]

I heard once that your sense of smell is best when you are 10, but in the few decades after that the loss is so very slight that NO ONE NOTICES... OOoOOoOooOoooOoOooOoOoOOooO

[@pnrking]

THANKS ALOT

[@itusvirus]

Potatoes sometimes smell like vanilla when I cook them, especially when I leave the skin on.

[@kenjibenji9655]

3:13 Oh so I'm special!

[@wolvesrfun]

Sometimes, I wish that I couldn't smell chocolate. Fresh, melted chocolate makes me feel sick. Something's not right. -.-

[@Bobby.Kristensen]

20 times larger than MY puny one? No, I am a dog.

[@a-homeless-man]

I would think touch was the first sense we use when we are born...

[@pooltableproductions2174]

This is cool

[@fabienne.1986]

When I got a good stuffy nose from a cold, I cant even taste any of the 5 basic tastes.

[@GoodGuy9800]

My mom has anosmia due to a surgery :/

[@Missnaughty011]

Why is my sense of smell heightened when I'm hungry?

[@honeybubu2]

nice job guys! :)

[@jesse4362]

holy fucking shit, the way that the background in this video is moving makes it so hard to focus on anything in the video, and it hurts my eyes like hell!

[@lecoloredletterscommentato9152]

another thing that's awesome about being earthling *insert snobby "we are destroying the earth" such quote here*

[@BruceDylanTan]

I don't know about you, but I smell great. That's how I smell.

[@jeremiahmerchant8895]

true

[@dalton6173]

Why can we smell solid objects? Like that "New car smell" or the smell of hard wood. These are solid and not releasing any weight into the world around them so what is happening to allow me to smell it?

[@Scarletpooky]

My dog has no nose. How does he smell? Awful! :p

[@fdxponome]

im one of these lucky person with anosmia! it doesnt bother me much though

[@MachineGunKali]

When a person takes Amoxycillin, their pee smells like popcorn.

[@igesio]

So, whenever I smell something bad, a particle of that is inside me...?

[@wesbesttreacts4515]

If we come out the womb smelling then that's why babys cry lol

[@chychy1]

From the waist down I smell like rose peddles :D

[@TheInvisibleCheshire]

oh my god...the neocortex...my childhood now makes sense.

[@armygringo]

Haha, Crash Bandicoot huh? :)

[@TheInvisibleCheshire]

armygringo yup XD

[@armygringo]

Lol good times, good times... I probably could still beat all three games (didn't care much for the racing one, though) :)

[@hannahackerman2383]

this is all about the nose wach to leran all about it

[@shannondo1967]

what is u have a stuffy nose and cant smell ?

[@MasterGreat1]

how could smell evolve b4 touch n sight?

[@humanadam9773]

after a long research, I concluded science know nothing about smells.

[@zhujustin1997]

that's why i dont breath through nose

[@kaykiatan2978]

@vincent732 Heyya good to see ya again....still struggling with my modeling career actually :(

[@aimee2338]

As someone who suffers from anosmia, either congenital or acquired by an illness as a newborn, this really intrigues me. The fact that people can smell really confuses me.

[@Dachimotsu]

Forgive the reply to this old comment, but I'm always intrigued by people with sensory deprivation. It makes me want to learn more about how they perceive others that possess their missing senses. So, what's it like? Do other people just seem to have psychic powers that tell them there's a gas leak? Or when someone farted? Or what Mom's cooking for dinner? And if you can't smell, does it make you immune to smells that would nauseate or physically harm others? I'm assuming it doesn't make you immune to gas, as you'd likely still be able to tell if you were losing oxygen.

[@aimee2338]

Dachimotsu No, we don't have psychic powers lol, I've heard it's similar to what a smeller feels like with a blocked nose, except I can breath out of my nose. The only way I know if someone has farted is if I hear it, or peoples reactions afterward 😂 Chemicals and gases that only make you feel unwell due to their strong smell wouldn't affect me, but if they have physical symptoms then they likely will affect me, it isn't the smell that affects you, that's just a side effect. Like bath salts, I get a 'minty sensation' up my nose, and my eyes water, but I don't smell a thing.

[@PhoebeTheFairy56]

I have a bad sense of smell, but I can smell things if they are strong enough.

[@dr.bleach2123]

Aimee Loftus illiterate

[@tomg268]

interesting: how do you experience taste? do you like spicy or very sweet foods?