Human Senses (2003) BBC

Part 1: Smell and Taste

Smell

This episode goes in search of the most disgusting and the most attractive smells, and attempts to discover the basic biological reasons for this. A visit to Albuquerque reveals the powers of one of nature's worst smells – skunk odour. Hidden cameras observe the effect skunk smell has on a crowded shopping mall. Not everyone is disgusted by skunk odour – some people seem unaffected. At the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia scientists have been developing the world's first universally repellent smell, so utterly disgusting it could be used for crowd control.

To discover the biological reasons why we find some smells so unpleasant, we travel to the African savannah, where a carcass has been rotting in the warm sun for two weeks. Our sense of smell has evolved to warn us off eating bacteria infested meat like this, which would almost certainly kill us, unlike scavengers like hyenas who aren't affected. In the course of their research at Monell, scientists tested the worst, naturally occurring smells that people found most offensive and discovered big differences in how people react to these smells. Our reactions are partly innate, but heavily shaped by our own personal experiences. We observe an experiment at the University of California in Los Angeles to see what happens in the brain when he smells a noxious scent and discovers the way we react to a smell reflects our past experiences of that smell – good or bad.

To create the worst smell in the world, the team at Monell had to find a concoction that would trigger everyone's worst smell memories. For the grand finale, we try out the 'stench soup' developed by the team. He takes a tiny sniff of the weapons grade stink, and is convulsed with disgust.

Taste

We set out to discover the biological reasons why humans eat such a range of diverse tasting dishes, from rotten raw ducks eggs to a sweaty blue cheese, and watch while contestants at chilli eating contest push their taste buds to the limit. Compared to many animals, humans have a ‘try anything once’ attitude to food and this has allowed us to populate every corner of the planet, while many other animals depend totally on one food source for their energy, which limits where they can survive. We test how far a humming bird will go to get a taste of nectar (by impersonating a flower!). Our taste buds allow us to enjoy or reject foods that are good or bad for us, but how do we end up with such extraordinary tastes, that vary across different cultures?

We persuade a group of people raised on Chinese food to try out a ripe stilton cheese, while a group of gourmet cheese lovers try a so-called 'Thousand Year Old Egg' – a preserved fermented raw duck egg – a Chinese delicacy. Both groups, trying these tastes for the first time, find them totally revolting. But as a species, we have a remarkable ability to learn to love the taste of almost anything, however strange tasting, as long as it doesn't actually make us sick. More than a quarter of the world's population eat chillies at least once a day. We talk to Professor Paul Rozin from the University of Pennsylvania who has studied why we come back for the big burn time and time again. He believes it's the same pleasure people get from a roller-coaster ride. It's all about pushing your taste buds to the limit – eating the hottest chilli you can bear is exhilarating, as long as you know it's not doing any lasting damage.

Source: http://www.bbcactive.com/BroadcastLearning/MediaSupportFiles/Human%20Senses%20synopsis.pdf

This sensory romp around the globe goes in search of the biological roots of our senses to uncover the reasons why particular sights, sounds, smells and tastes have such powerful effects on us. How do we manage to block out intense pain? How does our sense of balance keep working under the most extreme conditions? Live action combined with special effects creates incredible imagery to convey the 'feeling' of how our senses work. As an alarm bell goes off, we 'see' the noise, slowed down thousands of times. Ripples of sound roll towards us; we spin around and follow a sound wave as it travels into the dark outer ear canal.



The senses are our guide to the world, keeping us out of danger and directing us to pleasure. But how sensitive and accurate are they? And Just how intense a sensation can we bear? On a global assault course for the senses, our chief volunteer must endure many a sensory extreme - from the foulest smell to the hottest chilli pepper, while other, unsuspecting "volunteers" will unwittingly demonstrate just how easily our senses can be misled. We will also meet the sensory superstar of the animal kingdom, who can help to explain the biological roots of our own senses.





Are your eyes being tricked by your brain? Do you know what a supertaster is? Or how to avoid travel sickness? Put your senses to the test in our Senses Challenge.



Discover why food tastes bland if you can't smell.



The light hearted but revealing series explores, sense by sense, how they function and why we need them. Then delves so deep... you'll never hear, taste, touch, smell, stand, or see the same way again.

[edit] Smell and Taste



In the first programme of the series Nigel Marven goes in search of the most disgusting , the most attractive smells and sets out to discover the biological reasons why humans eat such a diverse range of foods, from rotten raw ducks eggs to a sweaty blue cheese. At a chilli eating contest, he pushes his taste buds to the limit.

[edit] Hearing and Balance



Sound can have a very powerful effect on how we feel about the world and Nigel Marven is on a quest to track down the sounds which have the most powerful emotional effects on us.Balance is our true sixth sense - it enables us to sense how our bodies are moving around in the world and keep us upright. There are only two kinds of animal that spend their whole lives performing the tricky balancing act of walking on two legs – humans and some flightless birds, like ostriches.

[edit] Touch and Vision



Humans are very sensitive to touch, but different parts of our body have different sensitivities. Nigel demonstrates that when it comes to our sense of touch, humans are similar to elephants.Nigel Marven sets out to discover why we are excellent at seeing some things, but sometimes miss what's right in front of our eyes.