What’s that noise? Did time run out?
Better be a Banks for me.
One big problem is when people burn microwave popcorn – now THAT fucking reeks.
The human nose can distinguish over 1 trillion different odors. Our limiting ability is being able to communicate that scent. At work we have sensory testing and I found the descriptors of smell in the English language, is lacking compared to the other senses.
“The team identified 10 basic odor qualities: fragrant, woody/resinous, fruity (non-citrus), chemical, minty/peppermint, sweet, popcorn, lemon and two kinds of sickening odors: pungent and decayed.”
We use lecithin sometimes in the lab and an interesting thing I like to do is to ask new people to describe it. Often, and I think this happens to most people, is that the sense is familar to them but they cant place it. If they cannot determines the scent themselves I find they are very susceptive to suggestion. Which is a dangerous thing, PBS’s Nova just had a special on the implantation of memories and it followed this exact formula. Suggest something plausible and convince/repeat it at a later date.
In truth I think its an impossible question to answer. Back to the lecithin example, the two most common responses is raisins or wheat bread. So I believe we all smell differently and often reject smells we dont like until we associate it with some sort of pleasure. Fear is a base emotion and often the initial response to unknown stimulus
At the Mayo Clinic, where so many people are on medical fasts for a test, microwave popcorn is banned from the building. I don’t think it’s because of disgust, though; quite the opposite.