Living Smart

III SCIENCE & STEM EDUCATION 104 105 And those who failed to recognize their partner’ s smell still found the smell somewhat stress-relieving. This experiment proves that the body’ s natural scent can, intentionally or unintentionally, trigger our physical and emotional reactions. Apart from couples, body odor can also enhance the bond between a mother and her baby. In 2013, using brain scans, the University of Pennsylvania observed that when mothers who had just given birth smelled a newborn baby, the reward system in their brains, which associates with positive emotions such as pleasure, kicks in immediately even if the smell was not from their own baby. In contrast, women of a similar age but had never given birth found the smells of babies pleasing, but their brain didn’ t have such a reward response. As our sense of smell is such a vital part of our lives, how far exactly can our sense of smell go? Humans have about 400 types of olfactory receptors with each receptor receiving a specific type of particles; and a smell is a mixture of different particles. In 2014, researchers at the Rockefeller University in New York specified 128 odor particles from which 10 to 30 kinds were extracted for mixture. They found that as long as the mixture had a difference of more than 50 percent, most testers could distinguish it. The greater the difference, the easier the detection. According to statistical calculations, there are as many as one trillion possible mixtures showing a difference of more than 50 percent in composition! Oh yes, scientists believe the human nose can detect a trillion smells and most of our smell capacity have just not been exercised. Published on July 03, 2019 Let’s get back on track in science Prof. LAW Kam-Tuen Dr. Tai-chin Lo Associate Professor of Science, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Founding President of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences W hen I was in secondary school, my physics teacher, who was among HKUST’ s first batch of graduates, always encouraged me and my classmates to explore scientific questions according to our interests, even though those questions are outside the syllabus. With his encouragement and guidance, we participated in science competitions in high school, paving the way for my continuation of scientific pursuits ever since. Many of us in the science stream then were lucky to be able to receive comprehensive scientific training and study subjects such as additional maths, biology, physics and chemistry in addition to Chinese, English and maths for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Exam. At the Advanced Level, we could focus on three science subjects in addition to English and Chinese. This gave us plenty of exposure to science subjects and room to explore the areas we liked most. Students nowadays are, however, required to take four compulsory subjects of Chinese, English, maths and liberal studies to meet university admission requirements, leading them to spend much less time on advancing their knowledge in science. If this situation continues, Hong Kong will likely suffer from a shortage of science and engineering talents in the long run. Over the years, I have always credited my achievements as