Smells and Bells

Hand print of a bacteria culture. Link is to common germs however, I'm using it to connect to the Saberi section on human cultures After reading the Saberi piece, one of the most interesting concepts that arose was that human cultures and the cultures of our own biology: an interesting dualism I wouldn't have ever thought of. The premise of the article itself is interesting: the intersection of where religion and biology meet.The fact that the bacteria involved with making cheese can be found on some people's skin is so unheard of. It makes me think more about the culture of microbes.  Over the winter break I read a book on the significance of microbes and bacteria in our lives and it supports the concept of a human culture's culture, and actually takes it a step further. Each individual has a unique microbial makeup inside and out of our bodies, from birth, if naturally delivered we receive our mother's microbes preparing us for life. Another interesti...

I found Dr. Herz's lecture to be fascinating from start to finish. I was particularly intrigued by the experience of smell and taste, as demonstrated by the jelly bean experiment. I was shocked by my inability to label the flavor of the jelly bean without smell. Now, I have experienced this phenomena before with head colds, but the instant wave of a named flavor that hit me when I released my nose was much more powerful than I expected. This got me thinking about the experience of flavor as a whole, and I started thinking about when people stop and appreciate the complexity of it. And I thought of wine tastings. According to 'A Sensory Users Manual', there are four elements to flavor, two more than Dr. Herz addressed. These are smell and taste, but also texture and sight. I agree that smell and taste are the most essential pieces, but there is some truth that the texture and appearance of the food/wine affects our experience. The feeling of a wine, like the temperature and ...