Your Nostrils Are Amazing

How those two holes in the middle of your face share smelling duties

I’m trying to think about simple things right now: things that I might have overlooked when I cared whether my Metrocard was full; things to distract me from the feeling of despair that hangs in the air; things that are right in front of me, or even, on me, that I may have taken for granted 11 months ago. Like my nose.

When we’re not hyperventilating about the state of our country, we take around 22,000 breaths a day. And, unless you’re a mouth breather, we also inhale smells. But did you know that our nostrils are engaging in a pas de deux all day long, taking in different but complementary odors and air flows? Thinking about how they collaborate to form a cohesive and functioning nose will blow your mind every time you blow your nose.

Your right and left nostrils perceive odor differently. In a recent interview for NPR’s TED Radio Hour, we talked to art and scent historian Caro Verbeek, who told me that, as we breathe, “There’s a constant fast airflow in one of your nostrils and a slow one in the other.” Some odorous molecules are only detectable in air flows; others in fast air flows. “So in order to perceive everything, you have to use both nostrils to smell three-dimensionally.” I tested this out on my coffee. First, I smelled…