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PaperclipPerfector  14d ago (text post)   3487 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 21, 2024

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Apropos of a conversation I had with my running partner this weekend, how close is the “pixel“ of smell and taste? I.e. is there any way to break down scent and flavor the same way sight and sound are with pixels and the Fourier transform.

It appears that humans have between 350 and 400 olfactory receptors, so I suppose once we fully describe them we'll have as good a model for smell as we can get. Taste seems to be a lot simpler, and yet people are still finding new receptors there as well (though having tasted salt licorice I would say that's one better left unstimulated).

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