The smell of a memory

I remember: as a kid, reading with fascination in one of those Readers' Digest collections of science facts, my first explanation of how we smell. That is, we detect smells then identify them from our internal smell database. The chemosensory theory espoused by most scientists in thd field, describes how nerve cells feeding our organs of taste and smell tell us what we're sensing. Individual sensory nerves in the mouth, and high up in the nose, react to stimulation from molecules we ingest and sniff. Our brain then tells us - if the milk in this carton is still fresh, or if there is insufficient acid in a dish to balance the richness of the beefsteak. The problem? Smells are seemingly alien data points for most speech - language pathologists (SLP's), while taste is a phenomenon an SLP deals with almost daily, be the consumer 8 months or 81 years.

We have to accept and hold close, regardless, our role in helping people have their best smeller. Humans need olfaction in their toolbox, because unusual scents are often a warning sign of danger (a gas leak in your house, where the gas is augmented by mercaptan to make you smell rotten eggs), impending disgust (fish served to you on a Monday, so said the late Anthony Bourdain), momentary delights (taking a seat at your family's Thanksgiving dinner table, just before the carved turkey is presented), or damning embarrassment (walking into a white - tablecloth restaurant, immediately after playing all 90 minutes of a soccer match).

Our noses had become the talk of many conversations, face - to - face and digital, when they started "popping out" from beneath the barrier of a facial mask, during the COVID - 19 pandemic. How dare you! How dare you not! She infects me; he infects me not....this was the noise that made those years cacophonous, but among the reasons that skeptics on mask - wearing gave for wearing a mask like a "chin diaper" - its making everyday "tidal breathing" more difficult over time. You could confront the anarchist mask - wearer and debate the merits of your position (regardless of your position on wearing a mask), but our current culture often requires a convenient and inexpensive solution to daily dilemnas. Ergo, the chin diaper.

The recent book by James Nestor, BREATH, reviews a number of observations from anthropology, evolutionary biology and other sciences, that appear to connect our ability to smell and breathe with our ability to think and have dominion over every living thing on the Earth. In summary: bigger brains are connected to our having poorer olfactory function. The branches of clinical medicine and surgery that attend to the human nose, are drawn to "fixing" that complex of chambers, nerve bundles and passageways, to save us from maladies such as sinus headaches, deviated septums, dental malocclusions, sinus infections, prognathism, and sleep apnea, - to name a few. If we have dominion over all creatures here, can we also dominate our noses?