An impaired sense of smell is one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and some other neurodegenerative diseases. Could it be a useful diagnostic tool?
Long known to play a role in sexual attraction, pheromones are revealing their influence over a range of nonsexual behaviors as researchers tease apart the neural circuitry that translates smells into action.
In discrete neuron networks linking odor receptors in the nose to higher brain areas, similar odors are parsed by deep-lying cells with narrow odor selectivity.
Thanks to a book, a war, and a big green caterpillar, John Hildebrand found himself mapping the exquisite and surprising wiring of the insect olfactory system.
A scientist’s desperate attempts to prove that Mycobacterium leprae causes leprosy landed him on trial, but his insights into the disease’s pathology were eventually vindicated.
