That's Why You Can't Taste When Your Nose's Stuffed

Bright Side

When your nose is stuffed, it affects your sense of taste because your ability to smell is closely linked to your sense of taste. Your brain combines signals from both your nose and taste buds to create the perception of flavor. Another fun body fact is that the acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve metal. Your skin is your body's largest organ, and it's covered in tiny openings called pores. Did you know that your eyes can distinguish between about 10 million different colors? Lastly, your body produces about 300 billion new cells every day to replace old or damaged ones.   #brightside   Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Listen to Bright Side on:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD... Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.... Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.of... Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-b...  Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00 Wow, humans can distinguish between more than 1 trillion scents, and each person has a unique

00:07 odor.

00:08 Tell me about it.

00:09 Just kidding, this ain't smell-o-vision.

00:12 But have you ever wondered how this sense is possible?

00:15 Well, let's sniff around and find out!

00:20 Imagine you're eating a freshly baked cookie.

00:25 Not only does it smell good, but it tastes delicious!

00:29 As it crumbles in your mouth, it starts to release little molecules.

00:34 These travel through the back of your throat, while some of them make their way into your

00:38 nose.

00:40 Now picture yourself walking into a room with a vanilla-scented candle.

00:46 You identify the musky smell through a process called diffusion.

00:51 Air and odor molecules spread freely in all directions until they reach your nose.

00:58 Let me shrink myself down to the size of an odor molecule, and I'll show you how it

01:03 works.

01:04 As you take a deep breath, I'll enter through your nose, the first organ of your respiratory

01:10 system.

01:11 Careful, don't trip on the boogers!

01:14 Can you see those thick little hairs inside your nostrils?

01:17 Those act as security guards, and they're as thick as the follicles on your head.

01:22 Their job is to stop dust, debris, germs, and other particles from getting into your

01:27 lungs.

01:28 The shiny stuff on the edges of the hairs is mucus.

01:32 No, it's not.

01:34 Yes, it is.

01:36 It traps the unwelcome particles that show up in your nose.

01:40 It also keeps the lining of your nose moist because the skin there is very sensitive and

01:45 needs constant hydration.

01:48 Uh-oh, watch out!

01:51 Sometimes I have to dodge these big fleshy things that occasionally invade here.

01:56 But not to worry, these are called fingers, and they're only interested in mining for

02:01 the boogers.

02:04 Further in, there are some tiny hairs called the cilia, but you can only see them through

02:08 a microscope.

02:09 They're another defense mechanism in your system.

02:12 You've also got these in your ears and other parts of your body.

02:17 When unwelcome visitors get trapped, the cilia move back and forth to push the mucus out

02:23 of the way.

02:24 They send it to either the back of your throat or to the front of your nose.

02:28 Finally, we have some room.

02:32 This huge chamber is the nasal cavity.

02:35 It goes all the way to the upper back of your throat.

02:39 Its job is to filter, moisturize, and warm up the air you inhale.

02:46 Can you see those three extended pieces on the wall of your nasal cavity that look like

02:50 small hot dogs?

02:52 Those are the turbinate, and you've got three in each nostril.

02:56 The first turbinate is the first tissue to meet the outside air.

03:00 Oxygen molecules will go down that slide that leads to your lungs, but we're heading the

03:05 other way.

03:07 Some odor molecules go into your lungs too, but they come right out when you exhale.

03:13 Look up at that thin layer of mucus – that's where we're heading.

03:17 Right underneath the mucus, you've got morcilla, and then there's the olfactory epithelium.

03:23 This is a very special tissue lying on the roof of your nasal chamber.

03:29 Think of it as a block of soft, squishy sponges that contains a lot of important things, like

03:35 the smell detectors leading to your brain.

03:38 Oh, look!

03:41 There are some teeny tiny things branching out like little plant roots.

03:45 Those are the dendrite, and they're extensions of your nerve cells.

03:48 You've got around 8 million neurons in each nostril.

03:52 Let's squeeze through and see what's going on further in.

03:56 Ah, here we are!

03:59 These round little guys that look like small cherry seeds are your smell receptors.

04:04 But they're supported by other cells, like a bunch of pillows placed between glass spheres

04:09 to keep them in place.

04:10 Let me just shrink even further and wake up one of those smell receptors.

04:16 Here.

04:17 Each of them is sensitive to a group of smells.

04:20 I'll bind myself to one that's sensitive to my smell, just like a piece of puzzle fitting

04:25 into place.

04:27 The moment the receptor cell picks me up, it triggers a series of events.

04:32 The receptor is now firing an electric signal through a thin tube called the axon.

04:38 Let's follow it and see where it goes.

04:41 We're now passing through a connective tissue that has olfactory glands.

04:46 These are responsible for producing the mucus in your nose that we just swam through.

04:52 Knock knock!

04:53 That feels like a hard shell.

04:56 It's called the cribriform plate, and it separates your brain from your nasal cavity.

05:01 It's got little holes in it to allow the nerves that pick up smells to go through.

05:06 As we move upwards, the nerves are starting to connect into bundles.

05:11 Squeezing through one of the holes in the plate, we see a bunch of them going further

05:15 in.

05:16 Oh wow, look at that!

05:20 Those bundles of nerve connect to a little ball.

05:23 That's the glomerulus.

05:25 It received the input from the little receptor cells, and it will process it further.

05:31 Even though it receives smell data from one receptor, it can detect multiple smells.

05:36 You've got around 1800 of those spheres extending above each nostril, and they're

05:41 all located on top of the bony plate we just squeezed through.

05:46 Now we're in the outward extension of the brain that sits right above your nasal cavity.

05:51 It looks like a bulb, which is why it's called the olfactory bulb.

05:56 We've got a long road ahead of us.

05:59 The little processing spheres are now extending to something called the mitral cells.

06:04 These are neurons, and they look like little spiders with very long legs extending on each

06:09 side.

06:10 Let's move further into the bulb, to the olfactory tract, and then inside the brain.

06:17 The bulb is part of the limbic system.

06:20 This is a large network of structures close to the middle of the brain that connects to

06:24 the central nervous system.

06:26 Brain cells carry the information to a small area in your brain called the amygdala.

06:32 That's where you process your emotions.

06:35 "Ugh, stop it!"

06:37 Okay.

06:38 Now, if you don't want to sneeze, press the skin on the bridge of your nose with your

06:42 fingers.

06:43 When you do it, your brain receives an alarm signal.

06:46 Very quickly, it puts the brakes on all other processes, including the sneezing reflex.

06:53 By the way, the longest sneezing fit was recorded in 1981.

06:58 It lasted for 976 days!

07:02 During this time, a woman from the UK sneezed more than a million times!

07:08 The part of your brain that's responsible for vision is in the back of your head.

07:12 Interestingly, the right side of your brain controls the vision on the left side, and

07:17 vice versa.

07:19 If you're in some loud place, for example, in a club or at a concert, close your ears

07:24 to better hear your friends.

07:27 Push the tragus, the pointed skin-covered cartilage in front of the ear canal, into

07:32 your ear.

07:33 Then, turn this ear toward your friend.

07:36 If you feel anxious, press your fingers into a fist with your thumb sticking out and slowly

07:41 blow on this finger.

07:44 If you can't stop hiccups, put an ice cube on your tongue, or you can close your ears

07:50 with your palms and drink a glass of water through a straw in one breath.

07:55 Pulling the tip of your tongue or raising your arms toward the ceiling can also be helpful.

08:01 On average, when a person snores, the sound doesn't get louder than 60 dB.

08:06 That's as loud as a regular conversation.

08:10 Sometimes, the noise levels can reach 80 dB. That's as loud as a working food blender.

08:17 If you want to wake up faster, hold your breath for some time.

08:20 When you do it, your heart starts beating more rapidly, and your body turns on the active

08:25 mode.

08:26 But don't overdo it!

08:28 If you wake up too abruptly, you'll put unnecessary stress on your heart.

08:33 If you feel moody, hold a pencil between your teeth.

08:36 The muscles involved in smiling will get down to work.

08:39 This will send special impulses to your brain, and it'll start producing endorphins.

08:44 In no time, your smile will become much more sincere.

08:50 Right-handed people tend to chew most of their food on the right side of their mouths, and

08:54 those who are left-handed use their left side more.

08:58 The smell of rosemary can help you activate your super memory.

09:02 Whenever you need to learn something by heart, do it while lying down in bed with a sprig

09:07 of rosemary nearby.

09:09 It'll help you memorize the info more effectively and faster.

09:14 If your leg has fallen asleep, shake your head.

09:17 In about a minute, you'll realize that your muscles have relaxed, and the pins and needles

09:22 sensation has passed.

09:26 The muscles that help your eyes focus make around 100,000 movements a day.

09:31 If you want to make your leg muscles move as much, you'll need to walk 50 miles.

09:37 Deja vu might actually be something like a brain processing lag.

09:41 There's a theory claiming it might happen when your brain is moving information from

09:45 one part to another.

09:47 If there's even the tiniest delay in that process, your brain will get the same information

09:52 twice.

09:53 In this case, it'll process it as an event that happened before.

09:58 Out of all those people who can move their ears, only 30% can move just one ear.

10:05 Your mouth burns when you're snacking on pineapple because while you're eating this fruit, it's

10:09 eating you back.

10:11 Pineapple is the only known food that contains bromelain.

10:15 That's an enzyme that breaks down proteins.

10:17 Luckily, your stomach acid knows how to deal with the offending enzyme.

10:23 If you have a tickle in your throat, scratch your ear.

10:26 This stimulates a nerve, which results in a muscle spasm in your throat.

10:31 And in no time, the tickle is gone.

10:34 Surprisingly, you burn more calories when you're sleeping than when you're watching

10:38 TV.

10:40 Ask your friend to sit down on a chair and put your index finger on their forehead.

10:45 Then tell them to stand up without using their hands.

10:48 They won't be able to do it.

10:51 Just like salamanders regrow their tails, humans might be able to regenerate cartilage.

10:57 That's rubber-like stuff surrounding your joints.

11:00 Scientists have recently discovered that cartilage could repair itself.

11:03 This process is likely to be the most effective at the ankle, not that effective in the knee,

11:09 and the least effective in the hip.

11:13 If you're lying in bed and suddenly experience vertigo, place one of your feet on the floor.

11:19 Your brain will receive the information that you're standing on something firm, and the

11:23 unpleasant sensation will pass.

11:27 Only 30% of people can flare their nostrils.

11:31 If someone is tapping you on the back while you're hugging, they're non-verbally asking

11:35 you to let go.

11:38 People with a single palmar crease have just one line running across their palm.

11:43 Such people are very rare – just 1.5% of the world's population.

11:48 Most people have two palmar creases.

11:51 Men are more likely to have a single palmar crease than women.

11:54 In most cases, it runs in families.

11:58 Your taste buds have a very short life cycle.

12:00 They live for no longer than 10-14 days.

12:05 Your lips are hundreds of times more sensitive than your fingertips.

12:10 Your skin wrinkles when you stay in the water for too long, but it doesn't happen because

12:14 it absorbs water.

12:16 In reality, wrinkled fingers and toes provide you with a better grip.

12:22 Studies have proved that sneezing is your nose's way to reset.

12:25 A sneeze reboots the cells that line the insides of your nose.

12:30 They're called cilia.

12:33 If a person has anosmia, which is also called smell blindness, they don't distinguish and

12:38 detect smells.

12:41 The amount of food you consume in your lifetime will weigh as much as 8 Asian elephants.

12:46 No wonder that people spend almost 4 years of their life eating!

12:52 Your skin analyzes 1 million bits of data per second.

12:56 Your ears and nose process 100,000 bits each.

13:00 And your tongue is the least productive.

13:02 It analyzes just 1,000 bits.

13:07 Multitasking is kind of impossible.

13:09 What we consider multitasking is actually just our brain switching between different

13:13 tasks really fast.

13:15 Unfortunately, in this case, people tend to make mistakes much more often.

13:20 Plus, you may need twice as much time to do a task as usual.

13:25 On the other hand, when you're engaged in some physical activity you've done many

13:29 times before, you can perform a mental task too.

13:32 That's why you can easily jog or take a shower and think about problems at work.

13:39 If you see someone constantly fixing their sleeves, they likely feel very nervous, and

13:44 fiddling with something is a self-soothing technique.

13:48 You can check how unique you are by chewing on a sprig of cilantro.

13:53 For some people, this herb may taste similar to soap because the plant contains a chemical

13:57 used in soap making.

13:59 But only 4-14% of the world's population have special genes that can detect it.

14:05 Are you one of them?

14:08 A grown-up person uses around 200 muscles to make just one step.

14:14 Your eyes never stop moving while taking in visual information.

14:18 Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to see the whole picture.

14:21 These movements go unnoticed because your brain is a great video editor.

14:26 It stabilizes the images and connects tons of fragments into one smooth video.

14:32 Your stomach gets a totally new lining every 3-4 days.

14:36 That's how your body prevents the stomach from digesting itself.

14:41 When a person lies, the temperature around their nose and in the inner corners of their

14:46 eyes rises.

14:48 This phenomenon is known as the Pinocchio effect.

14:53 The liver is the only human organ that can regenerate completely.

14:58 Even if it's a mere 25% of the original liver weight, the organ can get back to its

15:03 full size.

15:05 Synesthesia is an unusual and rare ability.

15:09 People who have it can taste music or hear colors.

15:12 But only 1 in every 2,000 people has it.

15:17 These days, our finger and toenails grow faster than they did half a century ago.

15:22 It might be because people eat more proteins today.

15:27 You start feeling thirsty once your water loss reaches 1% of your body weight.

15:32 More than 5% and you may even faint.

15:36 Water loss that exceeds 10% of the body weight, um, we'll just say that it doesn't end

15:41 well.

15:45 Your brain can generate more than 48 thoughts in under a minute.

15:50 That's almost 3,000 thoughts per hour and more than 70,000 per day.

15:56 Each person has around 150,000 hairs on their head.

16:00 On average, every strand grows about a half an inch per month.

16:04 If you combine the growth from each hair, it would measure the distance of 10 miles

16:08 per year.

16:11 If you get a leg cramp, pull your big toe toward yourself.

16:15 This will stretch your muscles and reduce the spasm.

16:19 People have bacteria that can produce electricity living in their intestines.

16:24 These bacteria give off electrons, which creates tiny electrical currents.

16:28 This might be the bacteria's way to generate energy.

16:31 Maybe turn on some lights.

16:33 Hey, it's dark in there!

16:36 By the end of their life, the average person can recall up to 150 trillion pieces of information.

16:44 If you brush your teeth before eating or drinking something, you might end up damaging your

16:48 taste buds.

16:49 That's because most kinds of toothpaste contain two chemicals, sodium lauryl ether

16:54 sulfate and sodium lauryl sulfate, that decrease your ability to taste sweet things and increase

17:00 your ability to taste bitter food.

17:04 The DEC2 gene mutation allows people to have just a few hours of sleep a night and still

17:10 feel great.

17:12 They don't get tired and never sleep in.

17:14 Boy, where do I get one of those!

17:17 On average, these people wake up at 4 or 5 am.

17:20 Only up to 5% of the world's population has this feature.

17:25 Only humans can produce emotional tears.

17:28 Other living beings cry to lubricate their eyes.

17:32 We, I mean human beings, have been evolving for 6 million years, but we're still not

17:38 perfect.

17:39 Turns out that our bodies have a bunch of design flaws.

17:43 First of all, human eyes have tiny blind spots, never mind the philosophical ones.

17:48 Such a spot is about the size of a pinhead.

17:50 It's located at the point where the optic nerve passes through the surface of the retina

17:55 at the back of the eye.

17:58 Your optic nerves connect your eyes to the brain.

18:00 They carry images for your brain to process.

18:02 This is how you see.

18:04 In the spot where these nerves leave your eye, though, there's a lack of something

18:08 called photoreceptors.

18:10 These receptors detect light and are the reason you can see.

18:13 Without them, your eyes wouldn't be able to send any signals to your brain to describe

18:17 what you're looking at.

18:19 But because there are no photoreceptors there, you've got a tiny blind spot in each of

18:23 your eyes.

18:26 If people were designed perfectly, without this flaw, they'd have eyes just like octopuses.

18:31 It may sound weird, but the eyes of these creatures are eerily similar to humans.

18:36 But their optic nerves run behind the retina.

18:39 This means that the nerves don't have to leave the eye at any point, so there's no

18:42 gap that causes the blind spot in human eyes.

18:47 What else?

18:48 Around 65 million Americans complained about having issues with their back, and this is

18:53 because of evolution.

18:55 Just like dogs, humans used to walk on all fours.

18:58 When people were walking on their hands and knees, the curve of their spine was pretty

19:01 much perfect, and all their organs felt comfortable.

19:05 Because of this, there was never any pressure on their backs.

19:08 Well, we evolved to start walking on two legs to save energy.

19:12 The search for food took longer and longer, and when walking on two legs, people saved

19:17 25% of energy.

19:20 But this was bad news for people's backs.

19:23 Because this way, their spines were basically forced to turn into a column to support all

19:27 the weight and make space for other organs.

19:30 But if your spine was completely straight, you wouldn't be able to walk on two legs.

19:34 So it evolved to become curved.

19:36 But this puts a big amount of pressure on your lower back.

19:40 So basically, to get rid of our pesky back problems, you should start walking on all

19:44 fours again.

19:45 That'll work.

19:48 Make no bones about it, people have too many bones in their feet.

19:51 We have all these bones because our ape-like ancestors needed them to grab onto tree branches.

19:56 Now people aren't swinging from trees anymore, but we still have all those bones, which makes

20:01 us prone to damaging them.

20:03 And this can be extremely uncomfortable.

20:06 Think about how many times you've stubbed your toes!

20:10 If we were designed perfectly, our feet would look like those of an ostrich.

20:14 These birds have way fewer bones.

20:16 And the parts that look like knees turned backwards are actually their ankle joints.

20:21 This makes ostriches less prone to injuries and also helps them run fast.

20:25 Wow, if people were designed this way, it would make the Olympics way more interesting.

20:29 I'd sure watch!

20:32 Now chew on this one!

20:34 Even teeth are also far from perfect.

20:36 People spend so much money on preserving them.

20:39 At the same time, no other animal has to visit a dentist as we do.

20:43 Also, once our teeth are permanently damaged or fall out, we can't grow new ones.

20:50 Sharks are the opposite.

20:51 They have an endless supply of teeth.

20:53 In some shark species, a new set of teeth develops every two weeks.

20:58 Kangaroos also have way better teeth than people do.

21:00 If we were designed perfectly, we'd probably have the same teeth as our bouncing buddies.

21:05 Once their teeth wear down, they fall out, and their rear teeth migrate forward.

21:12 That's not the only issue we have with our teeth.

21:14 Our mouths are way too crowded.

21:16 Hey, I normally have a foot in mine!

21:19 In the process of evolution, the human brain grew dramatically, and our jaws had to become

21:23 wider and shorter to make room for it.

21:26 But this left almost no room for our wisdom teeth.

21:30 In the past, wisdom teeth were helpful when people needed to break down food.

21:35 But as we learned to cook and process food, these teeth weren't needed anymore.

21:39 So in short, people should just get rid of them completely.

21:43 And this may actually be happening.

21:45 Around 25% of people, mostly Eskimos, are now born without some or all of their four

21:50 wisdom teeth.

21:53 Now it happens that our knees are quite impractical too.

21:56 It's the most complex joint in the body.

21:58 It's sandwiched between two massive levers, which is already pretty risky.

22:03 The knee only moves forward or backward, which doesn't make it a very secure construction.

22:08 That's why there's a bunch of rules in many kinds of sports, like soccer or rugby,

22:13 that forbid hitting an opponent's knee from the side.

22:16 To make people better suited to their new, sporty lifestyle, the hinge-like mechanism

22:21 of the knee could be replaced with a ball and socket.

22:24 This would be like the structure you have in your shoulders and hips.

22:26 That's it for today!

22:28 So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your

22:32 friends!

22:33 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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