How+do+you+smell?


 * __HOW DO YOU SMELL?__**

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In order for you to smell something, molecules from the object have to make it to your nose. Everything you smell, therefore, is giving off molecules -- whether it is onions, perfume, a piece of fruit, or garbage. Those molecules are generally light chemicals that float through the air into your nose. At the top of your nasal passages behind your nose, there is a patch of special neurons (nerve cells) about the size of a postage stamp. These neurons are unique in that they are out in the open where they can come into contact with the air. They have hair-like projections called cilia that increase their surface area. An odour molecule attaches to these cilia to trigger the neuron and cause you to distinguish a smell.

Megan L. Citations: Copyright © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/nose-throat/question139.htm

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