But these supersized snoots are constantly serving up surprises—and a group of researchers has now discovered that they’re discerning enough to distinguish more from less. Their study, published today in the journal PNAS, suggests elephants can use scent alone to differentiate between quantities of sunflower seeds that might flummox even the most hawk-eyed of humans.
— Read more at Elephants Can Use Scent to Distinguish More From Less at NOVA.
Well, we’re not as good as elephants, but humans can smell mirror molecules (stereoisomers) too! Limonene has a “right handed” and “left handed” arrangement and humans can definitely tell the difference. One smells like lemons and the other smells like oranges!
Yes, and I think you’d have to do a study…perhaps even humans can smell “quantity” better than we think.