Science Common Sense

186 - What causes smell?

Smells are tiny particles in the air that our noses can detect. When something, like a flower or food, breaks down, it releases tiny particles into the air. These particles travel up our noses and hit special tiny hairs inside our noses called olfactory receptors.

These hairs send a signal to our brain saying, 'Hey, I smell something!' and our brain tries to figure out what it is. That's how we smell things.