![]() ![]() When we smell an odorant molecule, it is volatile and non-reacting. Smell is arguably the most intimate of all the senses. It is imperative to realize that, in the first stages of any sensory process, we are physically interacting with the outside world. In these first stages of recognition we interact with the world in a way that is much more intimate, though not to belittle the power and impressive nature of memory, than in the stages of perception and recall. We react with the acidic (−COOH carboxyl groups) on our tongue. We conduct the compressions and rarefactions of sound waves into our ears. For instance, we absorb stimulating photons, packets (quanta) of light, that activate rods and cones in our eyes. However, to scrutinize Aristotle’s analogy of the impression by the ring on the wax (the initiation of a sensory process), the interaction humans have with the world at the first stages is very much with the matter. Perception is a tricky matter, and perhaps, at this moment, beyond the reaches of scientific rationale. To paraphrase: perception is the shadow, the imitator, the model. Repercussions of this work are not just important in understanding a basic scientific tool used by us all, but often taken for granted, it is also a step closer to understanding generic mechanisms between drug and receptor, for example.Īristotle wrote in his major treatise, ‘On the Soul’, that ‘Generally, about all perception, we can say that a sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet ring without the iron or gold’. Most importantly, I draw links and comparisons as to how better understanding of how small (10’s of atoms) molecules can interact so specially with large (10 000’s of atoms) proteins in a way that is so integral to healthy living. I show that such lines of thinking may answer some questions, or at least pose the right questions. I outline the current and new theory that conjectures a mechanism for signal transduction based on quantum mechanical phenomena, dubbed the ‘swipe card’, which is perhaps controversial but feasible. I report, here, the status quo theories for olfaction, highlighting what we do not know, and explaining why dismissing the perception of the input as ‘too subjective’ acts as a roadblock not conducive to scientific inquiry. These fundamental questions are not answered within the sphere of smell science we do not know what it is about a molecule that … smells. That is, for the others we know what stimuli causes what response, and why and how. Human sensory processes are well understood: hearing, seeing, perhaps even tasting and touch-but we do not understand smell-the elusive sense.
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