Smelling to Survive : The Amazing World of Our Sense of Smell

Smelling to Survive: The Amazing World of Our Sense of Smell by biologist Bill S. Hansson explores olfaction, often called the least understood of the senses, and its outsized importance across the natural world. Hansson shows how smell has shaped evolution and survival for millions of years, from plants that release alarm scents when under attack, to mosquitoes homing in on human sweat, to flowers that mimic the smell of rotting flesh to attract pollinators. Drawing on his own fieldwork, including studies of Christmas Island's red crabs and penguins that recognise their partners purely by scent, he traces how animals use smell to navigate, communicate, find mates and avoid danger, and considers how climate change and a changing environment are altering the world's smellscape. The result is an engaging, science-rich tour of a sense we tend to take for granted.