The Scent Perspective

When you look at a person, one thing that is not at all obvious is that our bodies are actually about 75% water. The brain tissue is closer to 90% water.

Here is a question to ponder: If you knew no biology or anatomy, how could you quickly tell that the body contains a high proportion of water?

The sense of smell detects tiny particles or molecules in the air. One common chemical that has no scent at all to us is pure water. This is rather strange since water readily evaporates, so that the sense of smell could easily receive it, and the air sometimes contains as much as several percent water vapor (vapour).

But logically, the sense of smell mechanism can only detect molecules which are different from those of which it is composed. This is not an issue with the other senses; sight, hearing, touch and, taste. So we can conclude that, unlike the other senses, smell is one of perspective and is not absolute.

It is not possible for us to detect water by smell because our bodies are made mostly of water. If there was a creature that was practically dry, it should be able to detect water by scent. Perfume is not composed of the same molecules as our scent mechanism. if the composition of our bodies was different, the things that we could smell would also be different.