Smell of death: are we really able to perceive it? The answer has nothing to do with the supernatural, but with science
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When it comes to death and mortality, concern is looming. Even doubts, in reality: we often ask ourselves what death really is, what comes after it and similar and similar questions. Sometimes science is not enough, and therefore we proceed alone, with our thinking, when this is enough.
It is no coincidence that long pages of philosophy and criticism. But the answer we sometimes give can only be partial and unsatisfactory. Especially when, with a certain taste for macabr it must be admitted, we ask ourselves when it will happen to us and how. Some say that when our time has come, it is felt in some way. Now science seems to be beating this path, confirming it as right. The smell of death, in a nutshell, would really be felt.
Smell of death, can we really smell it?
If the beautiful thing about the future is that it is uncertain and like a blank page gives us all the possibilities in the world, science tells us that we could even guess something about the future. And this something is there presence of death. It is not about clairvoyance or particular superpowers, but about something much more physical.
It is a question of naso. In fact, let’s not forget that, being animals, perhaps in an unconscious way, we still use the sense of smell. Our nose, responsible for receiving chemical stimuli from the outside, would be able to pick up the smell around a rotting corpse.
In particular, the person responsible for this alarm would be the putrescein released by the natural decay of amino acids that occurs after death. But what happens to our body when this molecule is in the air?
The amygdala gives signals of danger: the most natural action is escape. But why? The explanation is in the animal instinct. A corpse in the vicinity means the possible presence of a predator, so you will certainly have to run away. Furthermore, a corpse could infect us on a bacteriological level. Not a health walk, after all.