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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Here's an excerpt from a longer article, and a URL for another article:

The vibration theory was first proposed by G. M. Dyson in 1937. He 
proposed that a receptor in the nose detects the vibrations of odorant 
molecules, which the brain interprets as odours. He went on to suggest 
that the brain should therefore be able to interpret patterns of firing 
of vibrationally tuned detectors as odours. His theory was taken up by 
Robert Wright (principally funded by the British Columbia Research 
Council) who claimed to have found correlations between infrared spectra 
and odour in the 1960s and 1970s. Nevertheless, one of the weaknesses of 
Dyson's theory was that it did not explain how a receptor might sense 
vibration.

Such a mechanism has now been provided by Luca Turin at University 
College London. He proposes the presence of an electric potential gap in 
the receptor proteins, with NADPH and zinc ions providing the 
'electrodes'. Electrons cannot cross the gap unless an odorant molecule 
is placed between these electrodes. In order to cross the gap the 
electrons must lose energy, which they do by tunnelling through the 
orbitals of the odorant molecule and exciting vibrational modes in it as 
a result. Thus Turin has moved the search for correlations from infrared 
to inelastic electron tunnelling spectra.


http://www.sciencebase.com/elemsmell.html



Marie McHarry wrote:

> Lynda queries:
>
> <<Now, just for musings, if it is wiggle that causes the smell, how come
> almond is one of those odors/smells that some folks don't smell?  Are they
> "immune" to wiggle?>>
>
> Hmmm, I hadn't thought about the biochemistry of smell in years, but this
> conversation has tweaked some dormant brain cells (of which I have plenty).
> The theory of smell with which I'm familiar is that noses have molecular
> receptors (just as the tongue does for taste). When an airborne molecule
> wafts up your nose and hits a receptor, you interpret the hit as odor. Using
> this theory, it's easy to understand that a person missing a given receptor
> would also miss the smell associated with it.
>
> How are people supposed to detect the wiggle?
>
> Marie
>
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