How can your nose tell what's for dinner?

Imagine you are playing with your blocks. Suddenly, a warm, yummy smell drifts in from the kitchen. Take a slow sniff, just like that. You can tell it's soup before anyone says a word!

Nobody showed you the pot. You did not peek or taste. So how can your nose tell what's for dinner? Let's follow that smell and find out.

Warm food lets out little bits that float up into the air. These bits are far too small to see. Together they make the food's scent, which means the smell that a thing sends out.

Next, the air carries the scent across the house. Air keeps moving around, so it takes the floating bits along. Soon the soup scent drifts right up to you.

Now you breathe in, and the air slips into your nose. When you sniff, you pull in extra air. That brings in more scent, so the smell feels stronger.

Up high inside your nose sits a small patch that catches those floating bits. Soup bits feel different to it than toast bits or apple bits. So the patch can tell which bits came in. What do you think your nose does with them next?

Your nose sends a quick message to your brain. The message tells your brain which bits came in. In a blink, it arrives.

Your brain remembers smells from before. You smelled soup another day, and you ate it too. So your brain finds a match and knows right away. Soup for dinner!

Our special word today is scent. Food sends out scent, your nose catches it, and your brain remembers that food.

Sweet dreams, little sniffer, and may tomorrow bring you something yummy to smell.