Humans can follow scent trails across a field in the same way that dogs can ? and they improve with practice ? a intriguing new field study has revealed.
Jess Porter and Noam Sobel at the University of California in Berkeley, US, and colleagues tested whether 32 people were able to follow a 10-metre-long scent trail of chocolate essence through open grass using only their noses. Two-thirds of them could.
So says a December 17, 2006 New Scientist report, which includes video of a blindfolded person sniffing her way, on all fours, across a field.