3 ms·
If you haven't read "What the fly’s nose tells the fly’s brain" [0] take a look. It helps explain why the olfactory sensors might actually be selected to have w
by tgbugs 6y ago
If you haven't read "What the fly’s nose tells the fly’s brain" [0] take a look. It helps explain why the olfactory sensors might actually be selected to have wide spectrum sensitivity (it's a feature not a bug).
0. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4522789/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4522789/
- favoritecolor 6y agoThanks for the link! Cool to think about how the evolution of smell has optimized for "a maximum entropy code." I totally agree, it's a feature not a bug. A wide spectrum is absolutely an essential feature for an animal to sense thousands (to millions) of different chemicals without thousands (to millions) of different receptors. So, calling olfactory receptors "just plain horrible proteins" was a bit rude to them, haha! However, in my opinion, digital sensors based on olfactory receptors have and will continue to suffer from such wide spectra and poor sensitivities.