Reasonable, given the title, but as someone who had no idea how smell receptors work, I thought it was neat. The nut: > [T]he limited repertoire of receptors

Reasonable, given the title, but as someone who had no idea how smell receptors work, I thought it was neat. The nut: > [T]he limited repertoire of receptors on its olfactory sensory neurons must somehow recognize a vast number of compounds. So an individual receptor has to be able to respond to many diverse, seemingly unrelated odor molecules. > That versatility is at odds with the traditional lock-and-key model governing how selective chemical interactions tend to work. [....] > Now, new work has taken a crucial and much anticipated step forward in elucidating the beginning stages of the olfactory process. In a preprint posted online earlier this year, a team of researchers at Rockefeller University in New York provided the first molecular view of an olfactory receptor as it bound to an odor molecule.