Smell - The Fear of Anosmia

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After reading the first chapter of Ackerman's Natural History of the Five Senses, the thing that resonated with me the most was the section about anosmia. Today in class I spoke about how taste is my favorite scent, but after reading this, I realized that taste is not the same without scent. One of the chefs that my mother knows owns a restaurant in Providence and his food is absolutely explosive with flavor. It is some of the best food I have ever had and I cannot imagine not being able to taste it to its fullest. His is the only food that I have ever described as being explosive with flavor, no matter what it is. This section also struck a chord in me because of a young girl I babysit who has no sense of smell. It does not seem to bother her, but then again, she has never known what it is like to have a sense of smell, unlike the man Ackerman wrote about. When she grows up and eventually lives on her own she will get a service dog to detect gas leaks or smoke. This also made me think about all of the people whose sense of smell has been skewed due to COVID. That is honestly probably the scariest part of the virus in my opinion. It is amazing how significant our sense of smell and taste are to our lives and our safety.

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