The Nose Facts
The Nose Facts
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| Interesting The Nose Facts: |
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| The nose allows you to smell by sending signals to the brain via the olfactory nerve. This nerve goes from your nose, directly into your brain. This is why certain smells can bring back memories, and the olfactory nerve is the only nerve that does this. |
| Your nose can help detect much more than good smells. It can help to detect dangerous smells in the air, like chemicals. |
| Even if you think you're a "mouth-breather," you still mostly breathe through your nose. Your nose helps filter the air, removing dust and dirt from it, and also warms the air (or cools the air if it is really hot) to body temperature. |
| Between your two nostrils (the openings at the end of your nose) there is a wall of very thin cartilage (cartilage is not as stiff as bone, but is much stronger than skin) called the nasal septum. |
| A nose bleed can occur when blood vessels in the septum break. Many things can cause this, such as colds, dry air, exercise, allergies, bumping your nose, or (and I know you don't do this) picking your nose. |
| Behind your nose in the middle of your face is a space called the nasal cavity, which connects with the back of your throat. The nasal cavity is separated from your mouth by the tissue in the roof of your mouth, called the palate. |
| Your nose has special receptors that are sensitive to odor molecules travelling through the air. These receptors are very tiny, and there are about 10 million of them in your nose! There are hundreds of different receptors, and each one can sense certain odors. These signals are then sent to the brain, which puts the signals together and tells you what you are smelling. The brain, working with the nose, can recognize over 10,000 different smells! |
| If you want to experiment with taste, get some of your favorite food and take a bite. Think about how that tastes. Then pinch your nose completely shut and take another bite. Notice a difference? Do you notice a difference when you have a cold? Most of your sense of taste is smelling the food! |
| On average, men have larger noses than women. |
| Mucous (or "snot," as most people say) has lots of different jobs. It is part of what helps warm the air that comes into your nose, but it also adds water to it. That way, your lungs don't get dried out. The mucous also helps catch dirt, and bacteria trying to get in. |
| Plastic surgery involving the nose is called ‘rhinoplasty.' |
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