So did you know

[hooplala]

lol I wonder if I could hold my nose and still detect the scent of something strong and easily recognizable.
I want to try this experiment!

You probably could, but more likely due to sneaky odor molecules sneaking into your nasal chamber, not due to the olfactory receptors in your skin, because they do not route to the odor-recognizing part of your brain.

So, do they have any point, or are they like the appendix?

[Sita]

Does this explain why I can taste smells?

[Eater of Clowns]

Does this explain why I can taste smells?

No, that's a stroke.

[Doktor Howl]

Does this explain why I can taste smells?

No, that's a stroke.

And LSD.  The drug that makes your music taste awful. 

Not that I would know personally, of course. 

[trix]

hah, that's interesting though, I wonder if this ability could be put to some sort of use...

[LMNO]

Ah. So, same receptors, different destination.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

lol I wonder if I could hold my nose and still detect the scent of something strong and easily recognizable.
I want to try this experiment!

You probably could, but more likely due to sneaky odor molecules sneaking into your nasal chamber, not due to the olfactory receptors in your skin, because they do not route to the odor-recognizing part of your brain.

So, do they have any point, or are they like the appendix?

Well, they trigger biochemical responses to environmental cues, so it seems a safe bet to say that they have a point, even if we don't really fully understand what's going on yet.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Does this explain why I can taste smells?

No, that's probably due to the fact that much of flavor is actually olfactory.

[Faust]

That's really cool, So how much sensitivity are we talking here?

Discrete impulses that adjust our reflexes or being able to tell coke from pepsi blindfolded while passing a hand over them.

[Dildo Argentino]

I wonder if this has anything to do with it... back when I worked as a pool attendant I got more than a fair share of truly revolting smells in large quantities (like the time I spent two days with a bunch of other guys using hydrochloric acid in chem-suits with rebreather apparatus to clean off half an inch of human fat from the inside of our pool - just the one example). And I had noticed that some atrocious smells have the added quality of not only not wanting to breathe while they are there, but also getting an icky feeling all over, a sense of touching something really vile. Rotting liver (I had the good fortune in a pharma factory) and badly rotten green peppers do that, for instance.

[Junkenstein]

...that your skin has odor receptors?

Your whole body is a nose.

You're welcome.

How does this work, are their functions related to perspiration, heat detection etc?

They work the same way as the ones in our noses do (detecting and recognizing odor molecules) but rather than routing that information through the thalamus for conscious recognition, they seem to serve a regulatory function, responding to certain odors by triggering biochemical cascades that regulate how our cells transcribe DNA to produce certain proteins. For example, for reasons no one understands, exposing the skin to the odor of sandalwood triggers a cascade that results in more rapid healing of wounds.

Wait, what? So Aromatherapy might not just be a giant pile of horseshit? What?

[Reginald Ret]

lol I wonder if I could hold my nose and still detect the scent of something strong and easily recognizable.
I want to try this experiment!

You probably could, but more likely due to sneaky odor molecules sneaking into your nasal chamber, not due to the olfactory receptors in your skin, because they do not route to the odor-recognizing part of your brain.

So, do they have any point, or are they like the appendix?

rub pepper on elbow. it should work, I never tried it though.

...that your skin has odor receptors?

Your whole body is a nose.

You're welcome.

How does this work, are their functions related to perspiration, heat detection etc?

They work the same way as the ones in our noses do (detecting and recognizing odor molecules) but rather than routing that information through the thalamus for conscious recognition, they seem to serve a regulatory function, responding to certain odors by triggering biochemical cascades that regulate how our cells transcribe DNA to produce certain proteins. For example, for reasons no one understands, exposing the skin to the odor of sandalwood triggers a cascade that results in more rapid healing of wounds.

Rapid healing? I'm guessing that is caused by free radicals.

Is joke? I don't get it.

Naw, I just read somewhere that too much antioxidants slow wound healing and I concocted this whole explanation in my head in which both apoptosis and excessive cellular growth (cancer) are caused by free radicals, and both are needed for tissue regeneration therefore free radicals must promote tissue regeneration.

Uhm, I'm not sure if i've explained that right.
Let me try again in an logical-positivist-ish style:
1. Anti-oxidants reduce the presence of free radicals.
2. Extreme concentrations of anti-oxidants are thought to slow tissue regeneration.
3. Extreme concentrations of free radicals are thought to cause apoptosis and excessive cellular growth.
  3.1. Free radicals could be a positive factor in tissue regeneration.
END of logical positivist-ish style.

Isn't sandalwood slightly poisonous? That could cause a release of free-radicals.

I'm just idly theorizing here but the concept has it's attractions.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That's really cool, So how much sensitivity are we talking here?

Discrete impulses that adjust our reflexes or being able to tell coke from pepsi blindfolded while passing a hand over them.

More like reactions that regulate the expression of signaling that tells the cells to do certain things, like telling skin cells to multiply and migrate.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

lol I wonder if I could hold my nose and still detect the scent of something strong and easily recognizable.
I want to try this experiment!

You probably could, but more likely due to sneaky odor molecules sneaking into your nasal chamber, not due to the olfactory receptors in your skin, because they do not route to the odor-recognizing part of your brain.

So, do they have any point, or are they like the appendix?

rub pepper on elbow. it should work, I never tried it though.

...that your skin has odor receptors?

Your whole body is a nose.

You're welcome.

How does this work, are their functions related to perspiration, heat detection etc?

They work the same way as the ones in our noses do (detecting and recognizing odor molecules) but rather than routing that information through the thalamus for conscious recognition, they seem to serve a regulatory function, responding to certain odors by triggering biochemical cascades that regulate how our cells transcribe DNA to produce certain proteins. For example, for reasons no one understands, exposing the skin to the odor of sandalwood triggers a cascade that results in more rapid healing of wounds.

Rapid healing? I'm guessing that is caused by free radicals.

Is joke? I don't get it.

Naw, I just read somewhere that too much antioxidants slow wound healing and I concocted this whole explanation in my head in which both apoptosis and excessive cellular growth (cancer) are caused by free radicals, and both are needed for tissue regeneration therefore free radicals must promote tissue regeneration.

Uhm, I'm not sure if i've explained that right.
Let me try again in an logical-positivist-ish style:
1. Anti-oxidants reduce the presence of free radicals.
2. Extreme concentrations of anti-oxidants are thought to slow tissue regeneration.
3. Extreme concentrations of free radicals are thought to cause apoptosis and excessive cellular growth.
  3.1. Free radicals could be a positive factor in tissue regeneration.
END of logical positivist-ish style.

Isn't sandalwood slightly poisonous? That could cause a release of free-radicals.

I'm just idly theorizing here but the concept has it's attractions.

So you're thinking that the cell signaling triggered by sandalwood could be telling the mitochondria to bump up production of free radicals to age cells and tell them to divide more rapidly, speeding skin cell proliferation and migration? I don't know that much about it but I don't see why not. I mean, shorthand for all that would probably just be "metabolize faster".

[Dildo Argentino]

Wait, what? So Aromatherapy might not just be a giant pile of horseshit? What?

I like that question!