You Use Quantum Physics to Smell

Your nose uses quantum tunnelling to smell! This crazy conclusion comes from the latest interpretations of the evidence about how our smell receptors detect odour molecules. This video summarises the two models of smell: shape theory and vibration theory, and concludes that you need both to explain how we smell.
#quantum #biology #DomainOfScience
If you would like to buy a poster of this map, they are available here: www.redbubble.com/people/domi...
I have also made a version available for educational use which you can find here: www.flickr.com/photos/9586967...
Domain of Science forum: www.commonlounge.com/communit...
The main reference I used for this video was "Life on the Edge" by JohnJoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili. Which I highly recommend, it is very well written and contains some brilliant science explanations. The field of quantum biology is utterly fascinating. www.amazon.com/Life-Edge-Comi...
Here are some other links you can look at if you want to find out more:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrati...
phys.org/news/2011-03-quantum...
www.physics.org/featuredetail....
To err is to human, and I human a lot. I always try my best to be as correct as possible, but unfortunately I make mistakes. This is the errata where I correct my silly mistakes. My goal is to one day do a video with no errors!
1. I misspelled Planck's Constant and wrote Plank's constant. Silly me!
Thanks so much to my supporters on Patreon. I hope to make money from my videos one day, but I’m not there yet! If you enjoy my videos and would like to help me make more this is the best way and I appreciate it very much. / domainofscience
Also, if you enjoyed this video, you will probably like my science books, available in all good books shops around the work and is printed in 16 languages. Links are below or just search for Professor Astro Cat. They are fun children's books aimed at the age range 7-12. But they are also a hit with adults who want good explanations of science. The books have won awards and the app won a Webby.
Frontiers of Space: nobrow.net/shop/professor-astr...
Atomic Adventure: nobrow.net/shop/professor-astr...
Intergalactic Activity Book: nobrow.net/shop/professor-astr...
Solar System App: www.minilabstudios.com/apps/pr...
Find me on twitter, instagram, and my website:
dominicwalliman.com
/ dominicwalliman
/ dominicwalliman
/ dominicwalliman

[@domainofscience]

If you don't know why you are subscribed to this channel, I just changed the channel name from DominicWalliman, so you probably subscribed after my Map of Physics or Map of Mathematics videos. Even though I changed the name, everything else is the same, and I'll be doing more of the same kind of videos! Sorry for any confusion.

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Domain of Science next topic electricity map with batteries , types of solar electricity , machanical electricity , etc imagine and relate electricity to create , store , use in form maps

[@polychats5990]

Domain of Science I get that you referenced the book that you used in this video but I think it would be really nice if you could provide free online sources for further reading. Obviously we can all just go and look this up on our own but I'm lazy and the time you spend would save time for everyone else too.

[@domainofscience]

Hey Peter, yeah you make a good point. I'll add it to my to-do list and see if I can find some good online resources. Thanks!

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Domain of Science I feel that your are able to create same knowledge in creative way .. I think you can give creative ways to express science . best wishes

[@Majoen1998]

"because we can smell in the dark" is such a great line out of context

[@sledgehamr6303]

In fact we can smell more in the dark due to sensory depravation

[@Sunshine-pk7zf]

@@sledgehamr6303 now what's sensory deprivation x)

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i don't get it

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Your method of visually presenting everything does an amazing job of hammering in concepts and better understanding it all. Keep it up!

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wrr

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and if you don't eep it up, let it go!

[@ricoreyes6044]

I can honestly say I learned something completely new today. Great video, thanks!

[@ch3zgr8r54]

Rico Reyes I

[@athoye]

You should've mentioned that the both Vibration and Quantum tunneling theory explains why we can't smell relatively cold objects.

[@domainofscience]

I hadn't even thought of that! That is very interesting.

[@xavierxrc]

The problem with quantum biology is that it has an explanation for everything and is not testable or specific. So the reason we can't smell things that are cold is simply because when there's less humidity there's less volatile compounds in the air so less compounds a nose can detect. So when molecules move across a cell membrane parts of it can fit into a receptor. The volatile compound doesn't stop reacting with the nose after it reacts with one part of it, it keeps moving along the nasal passage and most probably another part of the molecule reacts with the nose receptors. This makes the compound have a more complex smell. Smell is more like the rods and cones cells in your eyes. You have specific cells and receptors that can recognize specific functional groups aldehydes, esters, alcohols, ketones, thiols, etc. These combinations lead to different smells

[@lgsmarttv4608]

@@xavierxrc good point

[@xavierxrc]

@pyropulse I understand you want quantum biology to explain sense of smell, probably many other things too, but you said it yourself, life is complex so something so simple most likely wouldn't suffice for the answer. The prevailing theory on smell is what I just described. If you've ever smelled formaldehyde you know it has a very distinct strong smell. Most chemicals that are just a functional group or only has one functional group are particularly sharp when detected that's how we know functional groups are what interacts with nose receptors. All you have to do is Google "how does sense of smell work" and you'll see I didn't just pull this out the air. Actually I learned this in undergrad in my behavioral psychology and neuroscience class. I have nothing to gain from making false statements.

[@mytho_raj]

We cannot smell cold objects because the molecules can't travel from the cold food to our nose. And molecules in cold objects(solids)are more tightly packed than liquid or gaseous form.

[@silnalapa]

As a med student, I really appreciate that you explained the complex concepts in such an entertaining way. I recently was taking my receptor classes of physiology and I was particularly interested in sense of smell and that how little we know about it. Great video.

[@JonUhhThan]

you should make a map of engineering. I feel like it'd be really interesting

[@vintyprod]

YES!

[@anshumansingh3252]

OH YEAH

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OBVIOUSLY YES

[@pushkarlakhe13]

Ohh my god ... I have been searching about Smell for months now and did not understand a thing .. This video is godsend !!

[@KleRoi]

dude your science communication is ON POINT!

[@theWinterWalker]

I can't believe u haven't found your channel before now! As soon as I'm able I'm buying some posters, these are AMAZING 🤩

[@TheOwlGilga]

That also means taste is effected by quantum physics, it's been stated quite a lot that heavy water tastes sweet. Also with mirrored molecules, it should make a tiny difference how they are since the atoms outside of the benzene ring interact with each other in a very small manner. Or as you said, they just do both.

[@domainofscience]

Yeah I'm unsure. There is a large smell component to taste, so it could be that heavy water actually smells different, but tastes the same. I think taste receptors work differently to smell receptors, but I'm going to have to look that up! :D

[@TheOwlGilga]

It would be very interesting to find out! Anyhow, amazing job on your videos man, fell in love with this channel instantly. ♥

[@JeffreyPhillipsFreeman]

@@domainofscience Smell and taste actually do use the same kind of receptors. Thanks for the video.

[@sb-sm8ib]

@@JeffreyPhillipsFreeman then we should be able smell by mouth. Isn't it?

[@narrotibi]

Your channel is kind of a gold nugget, which I've found recently. Great work, waiting for more!

[@evasara7477]

I love your videos and the posters are so good! Never did I have a clearer picture (quite literally) of all kinds of sciences. This is amazing, thank you so much for divulging knowledge to those who are not experts in this field, great work.

[@valeriaitzelarteagamuniz5286]

This is actually one of the best videos I've watched ever. Thanks for your time and good explanations always

[@Hsquared]

After watching the science part of KZbin for about 6-7 years, I had never learned this before and you explain things so well it's amazing. Keep up the great work!

[@KillerIguanas]

Fantastic video, interesting as always. Keep it up!

[@williamverhoef4349]

Hey, Dominic, thanks for this incredibly good video explanation of the quantum biology involved in olfaction. I've been searching all over the internet for just such an explanation and almost gave up. I have linked to it in an answer to a question on Quora. Thanks again. We need more science communicators like you.

[@caraphelan5256]

Just finished chapter 5 of “Life on Edge” and needed additional help to understand inelastic quantum tunnelling. This is such a great video and animation to visualise the mechanics covered in that chapter, love it!

[@sigridjohansson8315]

I really like the way you present the information, especially the evidence and flaws of the conclusion. It makes the learning so much more interesting

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I never posted a comment before but I feel I owe you this much. Great presentation!

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Please more of this! The way of explanation is just so soothing... and conveniently, it's about quantum stuff!!

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Your videos are phenomenal! You make learning difficult subjects so easy : )

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Your work is extraordinary! Keep doing the mapping teaching, according to the brain plasticity, there are many individuals that could change their way of understanding thanks to your maps.

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Well done sir. Hit all the points I’ve been wondering about. Thank you

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I learn something new with every one of your videos. Keep it up!

[@colin_hart]

Thank you for an interesting video. I appreciate that you provide references in the description.

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brilliant channel!! I can't stop watching your videos! Great job!

[@TheUltimaxxxx]

Nice video. Would love to see more about our senses, how we taste, see, etc.

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I discovered this channel today and I was totally impressed by all the science videos. I'm going to be a college freshman by this fall, and my major is probably physic or applied physics. Physics has been a huge part of my life since my junior year of high school and I found it extremely fascinating and enthralling. I just wanted to say thank you so much for making all the videos, keep up the good work! (tbh, all these videos should be on KZbin trending)

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Hey Tammy! How is your undergraduate degree in physics going? I am in my senior year of chemistry and I absolutely love it!

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I love these videos, the design is sooo good and learning something new at "the scienctific way" is very entertaining. Good luck!! Greetings from Chile!!

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Always an intriguing watch, thanks!

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Nice videos as always! I think the new name is just a perfect description of your new content. Maybe you can do some videos about some of the Millennium Problems where you explain more in detail their history and current research status. Thank you!

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One of the most interesting videos i've ever seen on KZbin 😍

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soo interesting, thanks for the video!

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Well done! And I love the comments this has generated!

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[@lifeofander4657]

Never imagined how quantum physics could have such a strong link to something like our sense of smell. This opened my eyes to a whole new world i had completely ignored until now. Thank you very much, this was such a great video!!!

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Very informative, keep doing these fantastic videos! Can you do a video on Entropy?

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Very well explained, congrats.

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Unfortunately says "under construction", and I believe nothing can be as beautiful as Dominic's style (:

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I have*

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joao skate it wasn’t as clear as these videos tho

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Can you do some poster style videos on some of the formalism and basic ideas we use such as the notation of chemistry in it's various forms and how it has changed over time? As well as maybe other elementary/secondary areas of study for the hard sciences? I find this format incredibly entertaining and I think it suits my style of learning.

[@skystone8413]

I found this video very informative and well explained. Thank you for sharing. : )

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wow, nice video, i been wondering the same thing for so many years. Glad I found this video.

[@pollockbiswas5841]

Amazing explanation man, really appreciate it❤️

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Amazing as always !

[@karinwhitwood2368]

Love the video, thanks! I wonder how you would explain varying smelling ability. For example, dogs can smell seizures coming - presumably chemical changes in the body prior to a seizure. But, even staying within the human species, there are people with more adept senses of smell. More receptors? Ability to sense different vibrations? Interested in your thoughts. Thanks again - love the mapping.

[@domainofscience]

From my research here are a few bonus facts: Bloodhounds have a 40x larger olfactory epithelium, and so physically more smell neurons, plus a larger area of their brain dedicated to smell. Bears have the best noses, 7 times more sensitive than a bloodhound's and can smell a carcass 20km away. Within humans the sense of smell does vary, but I don't know what causes this variation but my guess would be more or fewer receptors.

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Your videos are great! I think a cool video topic might be different number systems, base-8 or base-12 would be interesting.

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Great video! It's mind blowing!😃

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High quality videos man ☺

[@kirankarki428]

Can you please make a separate video describing quantum tunneling? Your videos are amazing thank you

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awesome video. deserves a subscription.

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what software are you using for edit this video ?

[@rkoll33]

Thank you very much for the excellent explanation.The scent is to me our most metaphysical experience. Since TV and digital communication don't use it at all, our imagination doesn't do much with it. We don't really dream of perfume like we do with images or music still when it hits us, it can get so intense and emotional.

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I thought this was going to be a boring video, I was wrong! very informative.

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Can you share the way you use to create your videos? Yes, your videos is comprehensive and coherent, easily learned and worth spreading. I would like to learn your way of illustrating knowledge to spread it out widely for teaching aspects. I think it would help a lot of student struggling with scientific subjects

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This video made me unbelievably happy. :D Anyone else? Please, more videos on quantum biology! ;)

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map of biology, chemistry, and medicine please.

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Oh medicine please!

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Nice video man keep it up.I wonder would you ever make a Map of Computer Science or something like that :D.

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Very cool - well done, man. :)

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this is a fantastic video. Thanks

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Thanks. Excellent video.

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Do a Chemistry Map, great videos.

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Great video!

[@sigma239]

Please also do a video about the quantum biology in photosynthesis or bird navigation!

[@amandadavis5311]

If it hasn't been spotted already, I did notice starting at 8:31 there is a typo error for the word "experience". No big deal... I learn a tremendous amount from your videos and am very grateful for your kind and clear explanations! Much appreciated, I look forward to watching and learning more! :)

[@domainofscience]

Hey thanks! Yeah someone pointed that out to me and I fixed it in the posters. The video will have to stay as it is though. Thanks very much! :D

[@charleshudson5330]

Excellent video. Quantum biology will be a hot topic this century. Not only in Vibrational Smell, but electron-transfer Photosynthesis, entanglement Bird Migration, etc. As a physicist, I am amazed that quantum effects are appearing in biology - BUT, think of this: If quantum physics effects are real, Nature and Evolution would have figured a way to use them to advantage. Nature has had eons to experiment. We physicist just stumbled upon the quantum world a century ago. Of course Nature beat us to it.

[@danival2090]

"inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy" sounds profoundly interesting. I'll have to look into that. thanks!

[@arthurbttf]

Awesome video!

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i love your videos!!

[@realregrettable]

Great video, but I think you misspelled planck's contant when discussing the energy of photons. Anyways, keep up the good work!

[@cymoonrbacpro9426]

This is fantastic thank you

[@meloo]

Finally a Video that actually explain what smell is, not only how it works or stupid facts about it

[@fleurdepapaye9635]

Subscribed!

[@widget3672]

I like that this has quantum tunneling involved in not just human, but many animal's ability to smell. It shows that these organisms seem to use the same molecular apparatus to identify the molecules and I just think it's awesome that quantum physics takes place inside my face every time I breathe in. But what's even more awesome is that if this is possible here in this one example, what else could be possible through quantum technology? Other senses? There's always quantum computers, which seem to be getting on nicely. But what I find truly crazy is the potential for organisms on other planets around other stars - and what they might have done differently with such a crazy versatile tool. Then again, we're getting smarter and learning about it so I suppose it's now one of our new tools to explain things and test against - Hooray for progress!

[@Jonny11299]

As we are manifestations of the physical world, emerging from its womb in the microscopic realm and crawling up to the macroscopic world, it's unsurprising to me that we are immersed in all of its details, at all scales :) We are cities of cells, who themselves are cities of molecules, cohabitating and exchanging energy. Of course vibe-sensitive life would take advantage of the vibrations of molecules. It's also plausible to imagine this physical structure emerging and fine-tuning, given that life loves to create membranes that fold themselves up and stack themselves close together with small gaps in between (see: mitochondria, chloroplasts, intestines...) What is most interesting to me is that scientists are able to tune into the world, build models, make predictions, and test them with such a fine, intricate level of detail. Truly, huge round of applause for everybody involved in this process of discovery.

[@Luckycomet-ox2ir]

This is amazing and so well vulgarized. While I am a neuroscientist, I am far from having a good understanding of physics. You have helped me in this respect so thanks. So, I have an "out-there" question. Can humans detect smells that arise from basic human emotions, specifically fear and could we measure it. Ex: expose a participant to stimuli that induce a fear response while wearing a simple cotton t-shirt. take another blind subject and expose them to the odour and ask what emotion they think the person wearing the shirt was feeling. I know this sounds crazy but I do have a rationale behind it.

[@cristiannavarroparraguez34]

awesome vid!

[@habibrostami9226]

I loved your video. Could you please put some of your references in the comment section. I m interested to read more about it as physicist.

[@elliottitommyngo2501]

Can you do about magnetic sensors in birds too. Your map is so cool and amazing ❤❤❤

[@AlexTrusk91]

I really like the map style

[@BrantK147]

Fascinating. On a side note, it makes me sad that natural sciences are so popular and social sciences are not. There are so many channels on youtube about "pop-ifying" natural sciences but nothing comparable regarding social sciences that are so important for the progress of our civilization and our well-being as social beings. I wish someone with the required knowledge would create a channel like this about social sciences!

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Adrian Mena Look at the channel CGP Grey

[@lucy_woodward]

This is so cool!!

[@batcryalok]

Great video.

[@petert969]

Smart videos! GJ

[@charme2377]

excellent video

[@p.s.design4338]

this is a really cool video.

[@jcwyu]

Quantum tunneling actually describes how an electron approaches the interface (at some energy) and can appear at both sides simultaneously. That is the "tunneling" effect, kind of like it is depicted in science fiction movies. Whether the particles does bleed into and through another dimension, that is yet to be debated. As of the moment, there has been a lot of computing and modelling work based on classical and quantum equations which guys like Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger have formulated, but no one really understands this stuff. I have been working in gas sensing technology and interfaces for over a decade (Ph.D. and all) with about 50 publications. There also thermodynamic and magnetic components that we haven't even conceived of, let alone electron spin-up or spin-down. It becomes very very complicated to model, however for simplicity, 'the nose works'. We have yet to really scratch the surface...

[@AM-bj7yo]

Could u try and put ur resources and references in the description for future videos?

[@user-ed1rk1jg6i]

Quantum mechanics/physics is super underrated for how cool it is.

[@VyMariaDong]

Great video! Can't the fact that the proteins that participate in quantum tunneling are chiral account for the different smells of enantiomers? Like having a chiral Raman spectrophotometer?

[@jimb1580]

I think I'm in love... 😍

[@ghalibatiya875]

Just fantastic kindly just send me the papers links in order to a short lecture to our bio-students.

[@lucaturin]

Very nice video! :-D

[@rolandlever3215]

I thought of you while watching this! And nice to see your smiling face pop up ...

[@tear728]

Another great video. What's the software you use to do the map animations?

[@domainofscience]

I use a combo of Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro. I'm going to do a video explaining how I do it all as this is a frequent question I get.