The most prominent feature on our face, our nose, precedes us wherever we go, yet seldom does this remarkable organ receive its due. Outside an abundance of  smells both pleasant and otherwise awaits our often ignored proboscis.

The next time you’re outside, make a mental note of the scents around you. Scientists once thought humans could only detect 10,000 distinct smells, but they now put that number closer to one trillion. Tiny little scent cells at the top of the nasal cavity fire off messages to the brain where memory and emotion are processed. These nerve cells regenerate every 30 to 60 days, and their impact is powerful. A hint of citrus can take you back to the orange groves of childhood. A whiff of Crayola crayons evokes memories of school days in 85% of people tested. And, it turns out, we really can smell fear or disgust in the sweat of another person.

With such a finely tuned tool at our disposal, a walk outdoors can be enhanced by tuning into the smells around us. Scents are stronger in moist air, but even the driest days provide a veritable olfactory feast. Ponderosa pines carry the scent of vanilla or butterscotch. Eucalyptus smells like that chest rub your mom used when you had a cold. The sharp woody, balsamic smell of cedar can call up memories of your grandma’s quilt chest. Neighborhood trees like poplar or larch have a sweet smell to them, while the ever-present Bradley pear or boxwoods smell rather like cat urine.

Weather too, has its own “scentsory” palette. We all know the smell of rain, that sharp pre-storm scent of ozone which gives way to the pleasant, musky smell of wet earth. It comes from chemicals like petrichor and geosmin, oil and bacteria in the soil  forced upward when raindrops hit dry earth. The nitrogen smell of lightning, the sweet smell of spring grass, the dank smell of summer, a heightened sense of smell with a coming snowstorm,  help to track the seasons just as much as light and temperature.

Researchers at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo have spent nearly a decade studying the effect of phytoncides, essential oils and aerosols emitted by plants and earth on the human body. Results show definite benefits. Breathing in nature’s scents can calm, soothe, restore. A practice the Finns call “forest bathing” can lower blood pressure and increase immune function. It turns out that smelling nature has as much benefit as seeing it, and that a walk in the woods or around the block is about way more than just exercise.

So, follow your nose today. Go outside, breathe deep, and indulge in some scent exploration. Yes, go ahead, inhale.

Additional Reading

What Makes Rain Smell So Good?

Podcast: Physics and the Smell of Snow

Sanborn Blog

Fun Facts

-18,000 to 20,000 liters of air pass through the adult nose each day.

-Hairs in the nose clean the air of foreign particles.

-Your nose shapes the sound of your voice

-When you sneeze irritants are expelled out of your nose at over 100 miles per hour

-Sneezing style is genetic

Quotables

“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.”
–  Doug Larson

“When I was a boy, I thought scent was contained in dewdrops on flowers and if I got up very early in the morning, I could collect it and make perfume.”
–  Oscar De La Renta

Poet’s Corner

“Today I think
Only with scents, – scents dead leaves yield,
And bracken, and wild carrot’s seed,
And the square mustard field;
Odours that rise
When the spade wounds the root of tree,
Rose, currant, raspberry, or goutweed,
Rhubarb or celery …”

–  Edward Thomas, Digging

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