It Smells Quantastic, Doesn’t It?

Olivier Loose
9 min readSep 2, 2020
To what extent is your sense of smell powered by quantum physics?
(Sources images: pixabay, pubchem, and Queensland Brain Institute)

Have you ever wondered how we know how something smells? I mean, the volatile molecules entering your nose have to tell your brain in one way or another: “Hey, it’s me!”.

But how do these messages get up there in the first place?

To find the answers to these questions, we need to turn to chemical messaging and electrical signaling between our nose and brain as well as within our…

Olivier Loose

Science writer at A Circle Is Round (https://acircleisround.com) • Writing preparation courses and exercise packages in the field of the physical sciences •