Engineering of the Human Tongue & Nose
Duration: 4 hours
Target Audience: Anyone who is interested in science, life, joy, nature and the cosmos
Brief:
The tongue and taste, nose and Smell are purely based on stereo-chemistry, which is why these two are known as Chemical senses. Tongue has 10,000 taste buds that can taste millions of substances. Tongue is the approval authority before anything go into the stomach. Taste buds constantly renew themselves to keep ours taste experience at the same level.
Functions of the tongue are:
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The main functions of nose is to smell. Human nose can smell and discern one trillion smells and odors. It also assists tongue in tasting. We have 10 million olfactory nerves. Helen Adams Keller said, “If I cannot see, I can survive. If I cannot hear, I can survive. But, if I will not smell, I cannot survive.” Much of our memories are dependent on smells. A lady smells green grass and remembers her childhood. Tongue is dependent on the nose. We know that, the receptors which are sensitive to taste and smell are called Chemoreceptors. Receptors of smell and taste are physically separated. Though they are physically separated, there is a close interaction between these two receptors.
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Single celled animals depend on smell as they do not have eyes, ears. Ticks detect by smell. Flies detect any decomposed material for analysis by their ability to smell. Their noses are complex chemical laboratories. Silk worms depend on their smell. Rats detect by the urine. Dogs will have 220 million olfactory nerves. Cave fish it identify its prey by smell. Tentacles detect predators in in queen scallop. Flowers advertise by smell to attract insects for pollination. For beetles, the nose is modified into trunk. Various types of antennas are helpful for smell in insects. Mosquitoes detect carbon dioxide through smell. Its noses are equipped with the ability to identify the presence of carbon dioxide. Catfish’s entire body is like a tongue, and is known as swimming tongue. Shark is known as the swimming nose, because it can smell even one drop of blood from 5 kilometers. Salmons travel thousands of kilometers by smell. Narwhal has a tusk which has a nerve center leading to the brain. It has ability of sensing chemicals and is a chemical analyzer. There has been great research in the electronic nose. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in USA) has done research work on detecting smells and sniffing out dirty bombs. In the electronic nose there are 32 sensors that are made of some kind of polymer. When a chemical touches the polymer either it expands or contracts. These are analyzed to spell out the smells.
Outline of Lecture
Outline of lecture on tongue and taste:
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Outline of the lecture on nose and smell:
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