Are humans more attuned to the smell of smoke?
It certainly seems like smoke and the general smell of burning materials is comparatively offensive and more easily detected than other smells. While I found established "odor thresholds" for various substances, I could not find much regarding smoke and it's constituents. If so, I wonder what the evolutionary basis would be. It doesn't seem like dodging forest fires would have been enough of a selective pressure.
Posted Dec 1, 2011, 10:49 PM UTC
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