presented in the text can be readily appreciated by the informed layman without a complete comprehension of the mathematical treatment. The caliber of the theory and mathematics is unfortunately not reflected in its presentation, which is often brief and incomplete. This is a stimulating book and its chief value lies in its function as an introduction to theoretical biology and in the questions...

It is widely believed that human languages cannot encode odors. While this is true for English, and other related languages, data from some non-Western languages challenge this view. Maniq, a language spoken by a small population of nomadic hunter-gatherers in southern Thailand, is such a language. It has a lexicon of over a dozen terms dedicated to smell. We examined the semantics of these sme...

Of all the senses, smell is the least understood. Despite centuries of investigation, science can still offer no satisfying theory for why a particular substance smells the way it does. Nor do we understand in any detail how we are able to distinguish the smell of a peach from that of an apricot, or how a particular smell can trigger longforgotten memories of a distant time or place. Human olfa...

OBJECTIVE To use combined pre- and postsurgical olfactory outcomes to assess the impact of endoscopic sinus surgery on chronic rhinosinusitis-related olfactory impairment. DATA SOURCES CINAHL, Cochrane, OVID, EMBASE, PubMed, and SCOPUS. Each database was searched from inception up to October 2015. REVIEW METHODS Studies were included that reported subjective or objective olfactory data in c...

There are many cases of smelling disorders, which can impact an individual’s ability to smell. In addition, it’s important to understand there is a whole population among us who cannot smell (anosmia), who may have grown up never smelling (congenital anosmia), or who have reduced smell (hyposmia). Because the sense of smell is not as severe, life-threatening, or well-known, it is not widely stu...

The sense of smell is largely taken for granted by laypersons and medical professionals alike. Indeed, its role in determining the flavor of foods and beverages, as well as in warning of, or protecting against, environmental hazards, often goes unrecognized. This is exemplified, in part, by the fact that most patients presenting to medical clinics with "taste" problems are typically subjected t...

How do we smell? Our knowledge of how odor information from the environment is perceived has greatly advanced since the discovery of approximately 1,000 genes for odorant receptors in the mammalian genome. From the combination of molecular-genetic, electrophysiological, and optical imaging studies a better understanding of how we smell is emerging.

Impaired olfaction (a functional decrement in the sense of smell) is not uncommon. It is estimated that at least 2 million Americans suffer from an impaired sense of smell, although the actual number is probably higher. 1 The importance of this primary sense should in no way be minimized, since its absence can result in profound consequences. Both personal protection and quality of life can be ...