Springtime Smells
Apr 27, 2017 05:53:14 #
Springtime Smells
Springtime has a magnificent smell - new-mown hay, flowers, wild garlic and many more fragrances.
It is more than just the new smells of plants, though, because scents are actually carried better in spring than winter, thanks to the weather.
There is more moisture in the air during spring and that helps odour molecules to waft through the air.
The humid air also helps the nose to sense smell.
As odour molecules get drawn up inside the nose they pass through a lining of mucus to special smell sensors, which signal to the brain what smell is detected.
When the air is humid, the odour molecules pass through the mucus more easily, producing stronger smell sensations.
"Flowers smell best just before a rain" goes an old saying, which may have some truth to it because moist air before rain can often bring on more smells. That may explain why many people say they can smell rain on the way, as another folklore saying tells:
When the ditch and pond offend the nose,
Then look for rain and stormy blows.
On the other hand, in dry air the inside of the nose dries out, cutting down our sense of smell. That also means we lose much of the flavour of food and drink, because up to 80 per cent of what we think is taste is, in fact, smell.
That explains why airline food can taste so bland on flights. At about 30,000ft, the humidity inside a plane can be less than 12 per cent drier than most deserts. The combination of dryness and low air pressure reduces the sensitivity of our taste buds to salty and sweet foods by about 30 per cent, although, surprisingly, our appreciation of sour, bitter and spicy flavours remains largely unaffected.
It's not just the sense of smell that is affected by dry air in planes. Just like being in the desert, the arid atmosphere of an aircraft results in dry eyes, contact lenses becoming irritating, tiredness, dry skin and dehydration.
Paul Simons,
The Times newspaper,
22 April 2017
Springtime has a magnificent smell - new-mown hay, flowers, wild garlic and many more fragrances.
It is more than just the new smells of plants, though, because scents are actually carried better in spring than winter, thanks to the weather.
There is more moisture in the air during spring and that helps odour molecules to waft through the air.
The humid air also helps the nose to sense smell.
As odour molecules get drawn up inside the nose they pass through a lining of mucus to special smell sensors, which signal to the brain what smell is detected.
When the air is humid, the odour molecules pass through the mucus more easily, producing stronger smell sensations.
"Flowers smell best just before a rain" goes an old saying, which may have some truth to it because moist air before rain can often bring on more smells. That may explain why many people say they can smell rain on the way, as another folklore saying tells:
When the ditch and pond offend the nose,
Then look for rain and stormy blows.
On the other hand, in dry air the inside of the nose dries out, cutting down our sense of smell. That also means we lose much of the flavour of food and drink, because up to 80 per cent of what we think is taste is, in fact, smell.
That explains why airline food can taste so bland on flights. At about 30,000ft, the humidity inside a plane can be less than 12 per cent drier than most deserts. The combination of dryness and low air pressure reduces the sensitivity of our taste buds to salty and sweet foods by about 30 per cent, although, surprisingly, our appreciation of sour, bitter and spicy flavours remains largely unaffected.
It's not just the sense of smell that is affected by dry air in planes. Just like being in the desert, the arid atmosphere of an aircraft results in dry eyes, contact lenses becoming irritating, tiredness, dry skin and dehydration.
Paul Simons,
The Times newspaper,
22 April 2017
Apr 27, 2017 07:13:45 #
Very good! I will try to think of this now that we have windows beginning to be opened and the farmer next door fertilizing his fields. 
Apr 28, 2017 10:34:49 #
paulrph1
Loc: Washington, Utah
[quote=Leicaflex]Springtime Smells
Springtime has a magnificent smell - new-mown hay, flowers, wild garlic and many more fragrances.
It is more than just the new smells of plants, though, because scents are actually carried better in spring than winter, thanks to the weather.
There is more moisture in the air during spring and that helps odour molecules to waft through the air.
The humid air also helps the nose to sense smell.
As odour molecules get drawn up inside the nose they pass through a lining of mucus to special smell sensors, which signal to the brain what smell is detected.
When the air is humid, the odour molecules pass through the mucus more easily, producing stronger smell sensations.
"Flowers smell best just before a rain" goes an old saying, which may have some truth to it because moist air before rain can often bring on more smells. That may explain why many people say they can smell rain on the way, as another folklore saying tells:
When the ditch and pond offend the nose,
Then look for rain and stormy blows.
On the other hand, in dry air the inside of the nose dries out, cutting down our sense of smell. That also means we lose much of the flavour of food and drink, because up to 80 per cent of what we think is taste is, in fact, smell.
That explains why airline food can taste so bland on flights. At about 30,000ft, the humidity inside a plane can be less than 12 per cent drier than most deserts. The combination of dryness and low air pressure reduces the sensitivity of our taste buds to salty and sweet foods by about 30 per cent, although, surprisingly, our appreciation of sour, bitter and spicy flavours remains largely unaffected.
It's not just the sense of smell that is affected by dry air in planes. Just like being in the desert, the arid atmosphere of an aircraft results in dry eyes, contact lenses becoming irritating, tiredness, dry skin and dehydration.
What you smell in the air with a rain storm is ozone.
Springtime has a magnificent smell - new-mown hay, flowers, wild garlic and many more fragrances.
It is more than just the new smells of plants, though, because scents are actually carried better in spring than winter, thanks to the weather.
There is more moisture in the air during spring and that helps odour molecules to waft through the air.
The humid air also helps the nose to sense smell.
As odour molecules get drawn up inside the nose they pass through a lining of mucus to special smell sensors, which signal to the brain what smell is detected.
When the air is humid, the odour molecules pass through the mucus more easily, producing stronger smell sensations.
"Flowers smell best just before a rain" goes an old saying, which may have some truth to it because moist air before rain can often bring on more smells. That may explain why many people say they can smell rain on the way, as another folklore saying tells:
When the ditch and pond offend the nose,
Then look for rain and stormy blows.
On the other hand, in dry air the inside of the nose dries out, cutting down our sense of smell. That also means we lose much of the flavour of food and drink, because up to 80 per cent of what we think is taste is, in fact, smell.
That explains why airline food can taste so bland on flights. At about 30,000ft, the humidity inside a plane can be less than 12 per cent drier than most deserts. The combination of dryness and low air pressure reduces the sensitivity of our taste buds to salty and sweet foods by about 30 per cent, although, surprisingly, our appreciation of sour, bitter and spicy flavours remains largely unaffected.
It's not just the sense of smell that is affected by dry air in planes. Just like being in the desert, the arid atmosphere of an aircraft results in dry eyes, contact lenses becoming irritating, tiredness, dry skin and dehydration.
What you smell in the air with a rain storm is ozone.
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