Well, here’s an interesting—if somewhat unsettling—discovery that may change the way you feel next time you take a whiff of something: Scientists have revealed that smells can feel it when they’re being smelled.
Oh! This is kind of cool, right?
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health just completed a multi-year study of the olfactory system and were surprised to discover that smells are absolutely aware of it when they are being inhaled through someone’s nose. “We aren’t sure how it feels to them,” said lead researcher Amanda Freid. “It could be pleasurable, or it could be incredibly painful, but they definitely feel it when they’re being sniffed, and it’s quite a strong sensation I might add.”
“Fascinatingly, if does not appear that smells are self aware or capable of feeling up until the point at which they are being smelled,” she continued. “While we need to do more research, our hypothesis is that the smells’ brief moments of sentience are entirely dependent on the act of being smelled, creating a sort of symbiotic relationship between smell and smeller where the smell owes its entire, albeit brief, existence to the person smelling it.”
Wow. Guess this is something to think about next time you smell fresh baked bread or a set of new tires!
So how does this make you feel? Does it make you want to run around smelling scented candles and microwave popcorn in order to allow as many smells as possible to experience feelings, or are you worried that being smelled actually makes smells experience unbearable pain? Let us know in the comments below!
