Researchers continue to show the power behind our sense of smell. Recent studies have found, among other things, that the smell of foods like pizza can cause uncontrollable anger in drivers on roads.

The review explains that smell is unique in its effects on the brain. According to Conrad King, the researcher who carried out the review, “more than any other senses, the sense of smell goes through the logical part of the brain and acts on the systems concerned with feelings. This is why the smell of baking bread can destroy the best intentions of a dieter.”

Smell, which dictates(决定) the unbelievable complexity of food tastes, has always been the least understood of our senses. Our noses are able to detect up to  distinct smells. Our ability to smell and taste this extremely large range of smells is controlled by something like 1,000 genes, which make up an amazing 3% of the human genome(基因组). Researchers Richard Axel and Linda Buck were together awarded a Nobel Prize in 2004 for their groundbreaking research on the nature of this extraordinary sense. These two scientists were the first to describe the family of 1,000 olfactory (嗅觉) genes and to explain how our olfactory system works.