Scientists Closer To Creating Artificial Noses 99
Scientists at MIT have moved closer to being able to create an artificial nose after finding a way to mass-produce smell receptors. The MIT RealNose project seeks to recreate the most complex and least-understood of the five senses: smell. The team plans to work with researchers around the world to develop a portable microfluidic device that can identify various smells, including diseases with unique odors, such as diabetes and certain cancers.
Color me surprised (Score:5, Funny)
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This is not a joking matter. My dog has no nose.
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No nose!? But how does he smell?
Interesting (Score:2, Funny)
So this adds an interesting twist on the old "I've got your nose" gag.
I would give up my eight other senses (Score:3, Funny)
the most complex and least-understood of the five senses, smell
And here I thought it was "smision".
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Nature designed the olfactory receptors over millions of years, and like most biological mollecules designed in such a way, they are incredibly efficient and specific. There is one male bug that can smell a female from miles away and track it (I can't remember the name right now though.)
I don't know anythign about the everything sensors you're talking about, I have to say that. However, you can't tell me we can make a machine small enough to fit on a bug that can detect chemicals from another bug-sized ob
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Sometimes we are interested in finding things other than femail bugs. In fact, we usually are, and we usually can't find a bug that want's to find what we want to find.
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Of course that was just one example to illustrate how great nature-designed olfactory receptors were. As far as usefulness, the summary mentioned diagnosing cancer from a smell. Hard to believe you actually missed that, so I'm assuming you were trying to make a joke, a sarcastic statement, a parody, or be ironic. Practice makes perfect!
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I thought that these guys were trying to "copy nature" to the extent that that makes sense. You seemed to me to be saying that since some bug can do something amazing they shouldn't bother to try (you did title your article "what's the point".)
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Moths have very good smell and can detect female moths from miles away with only a few molecules.
The magic sensors (Score:2)
just take two of those "everything sensing" plates that they said can identify any type of matter
I don't know anythign about the everything sensors you're talking about, I have to say that.
Yes, you know them. It's the sensors plate they use in their detector thingy on CSI to analyse their clues. The people at Star Trek used to have them too, but theirs don't have the fancy graphics and can't read the murderer's name out of some hair.
{Runs away}
Seriously :
The closest thing that we have to some generic detector is complex installations which couple a one or two stage(s) of high performance liquid- or gaz- chromatography [wikipedia.org] with multiple rounds (="tandem") of mass spectromety [wikipedia.org].
Then parse the result
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You have great domain expertise, but I question your conclusion. Both using or mimicking nature's fine tuned systems and "using some industrial detector" to do chemical analysis are imperfect works in progress. Why toss one out in favor of the other at this point? Both are perfectly viable approaches.
Every job has a best tool (Score:2)
Why toss one out in favor of the other at this point? Both are perfectly viable approaches.
Well OK, sorry, I wasn't precise enough :
For the specific use of having something small that you can use in a cybernetic nose mimicking or using nature's fine tuned systems is much more interesting than using some industrial detector due to the size factor.
Every jobs has a different tool which is best for it.
I don't suggest that we should toss the LC-MS machine. I just suggest that the current state-of-the-art "detect almost everything chemical" machines aren't suited for building silicone nose as ILuvRamen
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Here's a photo of one.
http://tinyurl.com/3nb66o [tinyurl.com]
Re:what's the point? (Score:4, Interesting)
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My dream girl is a pretty doctor but somehow with a big nose. Now we finally have some way to have a nose bigger than hers.
Who would want a nose that sensitive? (Score:2)
In the future, the RealNose team plan to ... identify various smells, including diseases with distinctive odors such as diabetes and lung, bladder and skin cancers.
I don't know what that smells like, but I think I'll stay with my own nose, thanks.
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Smelling these are pretty much useless, but I wouldn't at all mind being able to smell contagious diseases like the flu, which will give me a good warning to stay away from that person. I'd rather feel crappy for a few seconds than for a few days.
Just like feeling pain - it may be annoying, but in most cases you are going to be better off than if you didn't feel its early warning.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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I say excruciating, because I have the misfortune of being a biochemistry major that takes a couple of engineering classes. You have no idea how bad it is to be in a physics lab for three hours with a bunch of hygiene challenged college boys. My physics building is pretty old too, and I swear there are generations of funk built up in that stuffy little room. Think moldy
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I see your lab and raise you public transport in the summer.
Or even working for a sales organisation where some of the sales guys are just a little too fond of aftershave - I can smell them across the building some days. Bleah.
And they think it's attractive?
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They might be hygiene challenged college boys who became sales guys
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It's probably a lot better than the alternative...
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Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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I'm another slashdotter with no sense of smell. Didn't realize it until late in my teens. I thought that changes in humidty and other factors were what people meant by "smell".
I hear you on the deodorant issue. I have no idea if I have bad BO or not, or if I stepped in dog crap, or if the leftovers in my fridge went bad or not.
I wouldn't mind a replacement nose.
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I used to have a sense of smell, but I lost it after ~20 years of having a blocked nose. Now I've had surgery so the blockage is gone, but the sense of smell seems to be gone forever.
Frustratingly, once in a long while I suddenly *do* smell things - just for a second, and then it disappears again. These are almost always smells that I associate with specific childhood situations (like the smell of the house of a friend where I used to play).
My sense of taste seems to be working fine, although I cannot compa
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Sort of related, I have no sense of smell, at all. I was probably close on 20 years old before that fact actually sunk in.
None, at all? I have a weak sense of smell as judged by criticisms of an ex-wife, but I can still smell things if they're strong enough. The time my dog delighted himself in rolling around a field fertilized by something very close to pure crap and I carried him home[1] to get him cleaned up, I knew he stunk, but my ex-wife burned the clothes I had been wearing and I ended up bathing 3 or 4 times before she was satisfied.
I have a relatively weak sense of taste too. A real break through will be when someo
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Curious question: do you have a sense of taste too? Do people say you have an "odd" sense of taste?
Although there are times where something smells bad but tastes good... and obviously vice versa, but most the time it seems to be: smells good, tastes good. But I believe th
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From my understanding smell is like taste. They say that by holding your nose, you couldn't tell the difference between an onion and an apple ...
Not true: vapors from the food will pass up the back of the throat and trigger the smell receptors anyway. But, the dead taste of things when you have a bad cold is true, since nasal tissue swelling prevents access to the smell receptors.
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No sense of smell at all? Very interesting. I have a question for you: can you detect noxious substances or fumes, such as paint thinner, gasoline, etc.?
My sense of smell isn't very acute, but it is very useful being able to detect things like that, since these vapors are after all very poisonous, and dangerous to breathe in in any quantity.
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Same here, I was into my teens before it truly sunk in and I accepted it. I mean, how do you notice an absence of something, specifically if it doesn't impede anything you do.
I've read other accounts where people don't really realize it until they're older, either because they never had it.
Being a young kid was no help. Face it, as a young kid the only time a "smell" comes up is when someone would pass gas. And all of the kids' reactions wouldn't start until the first person would blurt out "oh my God wh
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People should still be careful (Score:5, Funny)
Most people don't realize just how important the olfactory senses are. They're responsible for taste, not just smell and people should be careful that they don't assume the new technology can replace it.
In short: you only get one nose, don't blow it.
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eat something really sweet, like a spoonful of sugar, then immediately taste something with aspartame in it, like diet coke. She says it tastes bitter to super tasters, not sweet.
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According to other people, I am in a similar situation. I think I can smell just fine, but people around me will be floored by odors I don't notice until someone brings attention to it.
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It's only funny if you're not addicted to blow... ;D
More portable than a dog (Score:2, Interesting)
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1) It probably doesn't get bored as fast.
2) you can buy a replacement without having to train it for months.
3) the original and replacement work within known specs.
Dogs are probably more fun to play with though
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Benefits of an artificial nose over a dog ...
Disadvantages:
1) An artificial nose will never go on walks with you.
2) An artificial nose will never jump up and down and all over you when you go near him and he hasn't seen you in a few minutes.
3) An artificial nose cannot walk your children to school and find his way home on his own.
Dogs are probably more fun to play with though :).
Yup.
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Benefits of an artificial nose over a dog ...
Disadvantages: 1) An artificial nose will never go on walks with you. 2) An artificial nose will never jump up and down and all over you when you go near him and he hasn't seen you in a few minutes. 3) An artificial nose cannot walk your children to school and find his way home on his own.
Dogs are probably more fun to play with though :).
Yup.
On the other hand, artificial noses don't create bad smells.
Bug in initial version. Everything smells like ass (Score:1)
First recipient of the nose, Marbic Shnauzer, fainted when the nose was first switched on. Scientists revealed a bug in the software made everything smell like ass. Mr Shnauzer said "I took one wiff of my own and and the smell was just too much. You try smelling ass after 5 years of nothing and see if you can take it!". Initial reports that a bored coder programmed this bug in on purpose were denied.
Five senses? (Score:3, Informative)
You forgot the kinesthetic senses, like acceleration, and the primary vestibular sense organ, the cochlea. Everybody forgets that one.
Six senses? (Score:2)
You forgot the kinesthetic senses, like acceleration, and the primary vestibular sense organ, the cochlea. Everybody forgets that one.
You forgot common sense, the primary sense function of the brain. Everybody forgets that one...well at least bankers on Wall Street seem to.
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Unless you happen to be a chronic motion-sickness sufferer.
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That's pretty important. Some people without that sense can still learn to walk, but if you switch the lights off, they could collapse.
Then there's the sense of hunger and fullness, thirst vs too much water.
Plenty of other important senses.
I'm glad the nose got picked for the front page. (Score:2, Funny)
Most folks might think it' snot really important, but I think it's important enough for /. to runny it up front.
Tycho Brahe had one on those 440 years ago (Score:2)
Not that important (Score:1, Interesting)
I lost my sense of smell in a head injury 5 years ago. My sense of taste was not affected.
Contrary to what you might think, I don't miss it much. In fact, in the city, most smells are bad. I'd say the situations where I am aware that I am not sensing a bad smell (cig smoke, urine, exhaust, chemicals, dog poo, etc) outnumber the ones where I am missing a good smell (flowers, perfume, dinner, the smell after rain, choc chip cookies) probably about five to one.
The worst part really is acting like I can smell t
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That would depend on how vaguely you define "touch"
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yeah, if you define "touch" as "interact", which is so vague as to render the term redundant. however if you define "touch" as mechanical pressure, then it is distinguished from the other four senses.
And let's face it, that IS how it is defined.
And yes, hearing involves mechanical pressure but it is the pattern of motion rather than just the mechanical pressure being sensed. If you poke yourself in the ear drum with a q-tip you aren't "hearing" the q-tip.
Artifical... Real... (Score:4, Funny)
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Leave this "nose" and a normal one in plastic bags for a week or two and compare how they smell afterwards.
Well... (Score:1, Redundant)
Michael Jackson will be pleased.
I lost my sense of smell (Score:4, Interesting)
I lost my sense of smell entirely for a couple of years. It has since returned, though not all that strongly. You don't realize what it's like unless it happens. Yeah, I could go into a barn and not be bothered and if my dog farted I didn't care, but I couldn't smell gas (the kind they sell you to heat up the stove), or anything burning, or sweat, or gasoline fumes (suggesting accompanying odorless CO), or spoilage in food that otherwise looked okay, or mildew, or that very special burning plastic stink of a hot CPU. Use your imagination for more 'exotic' issues.
It's damn dangerous to not have your sense of smell. I also lost interest in food. I couldn't understand at first why I needed more and more garlic until S.O. complained and I realized something was wrong. It sneaks up on you (just like fat!)
A couple of years later we were driving from Spokane to Seattle, a boring 300 mile trip in I-90, and my S.O. said, "You probaby can't tell this, but..."
"A skunk!" I said.
I've never been so happy to smell a skunk in my life! So I'd be happy with a plug-in replacement.
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e.g. more orgasms might help improve your sense of smell faster.
The latter has not been scientifically verified, YMMV etc.
Could we combine other new tech with it? (Score:2)
Like that new portable scanner seen previously on slashdot [slashdot.org] so I can finally live my dream of owning a real tricorder? And most likely subsequently be devoured by a strange new lifeform due to the entity's attraction to my red shirt...
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Be warned that if you happen to be dumb enough te wear a red shirt while using startrek-like technology and get killed, you will be nominated for a Darwin Award.
Drug detection more likely (Score:1)
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Given who has money right now I'd say "to develop a portable microfluidic device that can identify various smells, including drugs with unique odors, such as marijuana" is more likely what we'll see first.
And anyone who smells "black" or "Muslim" or "foreigner".
I've been waiting for this... (Score:3, Interesting)
Odo (Score:1)
A comment was overheard from Odo aboard DS9 "finally I can get a decent looking nose".
Checking Cell Structure... (Score:2)
This will also be used.. (Score:2)
I guarantee the first application of this will be used to detect the scent of marijuana. The device will be used to throw even more victims in our overcrowded jails/prisons to rot, ruining lives forever, all in the name of the "War on Drugs(tm)" i.e. war on a harmless plant. The good news is, when the revolution comes the victims will have the last laugh as the law enforcement officials, legislators, judges, etc responsible for its abuse are shot/hanged/imprisoned or otherwise disposed of.
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I won't RTFA (Score:2)
Next up: The Smelloscope! (Score:1)
This development can potentially allow us to observe the outside world in new and unusual ways, possibly beyond restoring the common smell sense.
Aside from Futurama jokes, imagine being able to literally smell a good or bad sample in data processing, etc.
At SETI research lab: "Look Joe, this is a funny-smelling star system, if I ever saw one!"
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imagine being able to literally smell a good or bad sample in data processing, etc.
I never wanted to be a programmer. Never. In the fields I tried first in college (Physics and Electronics) I had absolutely no intuition when it came down to dealing with harder stuff. Programming though, is different for me. I can walk into a large scale project to firefight, read a little source code to get a bit of understanding of what's going on, ask some questions and get straight to the real problem fairly quickly. I can't explain it other than the brain works differently for different people.
An
Send in the clowns (Score:1)
My first thought: happy shiny red rubber artificial noses!
Smellhounds, hospitals and geeking out on eNoses (Score:1)
If you want to geek out on eNoses, there is a lot of information out there. The article referenced above doesnâ(TM)t get into much detail, but there are basically three different techniques that are commonly used: mass spectrometry, used by companies like Torion [slashdot.org] , gas chromotography, used by companies like Seacoast Science, Inc [slashdot.org], and some of the newer systems use optical sensor systems, used by QualSec [slashdot.org]. Of these I like the optical sensors the best, because some of them can detect in the parts per Billio
Re:Smellhounds, hospitals and geeking out on eNose (Score:1)
Buddy from college... (Score:2)
married a girl with a severely diminished sense of smell. Perfect girl for him, as his diet was horrendous and he produced fumes that, a!@%$^(*!@
I'm stroking out just thinking about 'em, you get the idea..