Biological complexity: how we smell odors (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, May 27, 2016, 12:57 (3103 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: What is surprising is how did evolution see a future need for smelling all these odors, many of which are not predator smell, obviously a necessary one? Although the author dies not state it, I'm sure, like color, the capacity to differentiate is learned. Once again I view this as a drive for complexification, not for survival: men love perfume on women, but that is a late arrival in society, and we were breeding for many years before its arrival. This is one area where humans have a lesser ability than other animals, but we don't need it. We train dogs to follow criminal trails, to spot drugs, etc. We have our 'smarts' to close the gap.
-I have never thought of smell as quite such a mystery, so this article is a real eye-opener (or nose-opener). Unfortunately, it is a bit too technical for me to follow, so perhaps you could just explain what the author regards as the SOURCE of smell, if it's not the molecular structure. I have always assumed that all forms of matter had their own smell, and that dogs, for instance, were able to distinguish the finest nuances - or whatever is the right term for scents. -What I think is beyond question, though, is that in many organisms the sense of smell performs a much wider range of functions than awareness of a predator: alertness to danger, communication, identification, marking out territory, sexual attraction, the hunt for food etc., all of which are essential to survival. I really can't see how the development of any of the senses can be regarded as complexification for its own sake when each of them is so useful in its own right. We know of course that organisms can survive without them, but does anyone seriously believe that having them is not an improvement over not having them?