From Best Riddles      Answer key

• Two scientists, Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck, won the Nobel Prize in 2004 for their research on the nose and sense of smell. They split a prize of $1.3 million. 
  

• Good smells make you happier: Smelling a fragrance you perceive as pleasant has a profoundly positive effect on your mood. It makes you feel contented.
  

• Your sense of smell is 1000 times more sensitive than your sense of taste. 80% of what we experience as taste is actually smell.
  

• The human nose can smell many different odors but is far less sensitive than other animals such as dogs. Humans can notice more than a trillion different smells with their noses.
  

• On average, men have larger noses than women, but women generally have stronger senses of smell than men;
  

• One in 10,000 people (US citizens, to be exact) exhibiting perfect pitch (absolute pitch).
  

• While your ears pick up the sound, it is your brain that does the hard work of making sense of it all. Ears can hear 340,000 tones from low to high.
  

• Your sense of hearing is dependent upon tiny hairs deep inside your ear. If you lose these hairs, you lose your hearing.
  

• Ear wax normally comes out of your ear naturally so it’s not a good idea to try and remove it yourself unless it is causing health problems (best to see your doctor first)
  

• Your ears never stop hearing, even when you sleep. Your brain just ignores incoming sounds.
  

• Your ears are more than just necessary for hearing; they also help you keep your balance.
  

• Not all living creatures hear with ears. Snakes use jawbones, fish respond to pressure changes, and male mosquitoes use antennae.
  

• The number one cause of hearing loss is exposure to excessively loud sounds (85 decibels or higher). Your hearing can be damaged permanently even after a single incident of exposure to extremely loud noise (shotgun blast, explosion, etc.).