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Beaulderdash2000 t1_j1p9h2q wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in I recently learned that humans can smell rain / petrichor (ozone and geosmin) better than sharks smell blood, now considering we don't have any extra hyper specific olfactory organs like some other animals do, how do we achieve this level of detection? by Corvuscoraxaphro

Its the smell of fresh rain specially that this study refers to. Not just water. But, the evolutionary advantage of being able.to smell rain on the wind, could have been very successful.

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PercussiveRussel t1_j1pi0im wrote

More specifically, the smell of fresh rain isn't water, but rather some chemical that's released from the soil.

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EstaLisa t1_j1pvnb7 wrote

released from bacteria in the soil. there‘s a microcosm museum in amsterdam where you can smell on a tube with said bacteria in it. i couldn‘t stop smelling. it was a wonderful experience.

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