Decoding smell: Study reveals how odor signals shapeshift in the wind
Humans trust dogs to help find missing people and bees to pollinate their crops. But scientists still don't fully understand how these animals use their extraordinary sense of smell to locate the source of an odor.
New CU Boulder research reveals that the wind itself plays an important role. As an odor travels, the turbulent air changes the timing of odor whiffs in systematic ways, creating patterns that may be useful to animals navigating toward an odor source.
The findings are part of the international Odor2Action research network, which brings together an interdisciplinary team of scientists from 16 institutions to tackle a core problem in neuroscience: how animals use odors to guide natural behaviors.
