One step closer to reality every day

Chapter 211 Smell
Xiaojia scratched his head, "declare the territory... generally through physical signals or chemical signals. Physical signals are scratches and bite marks and the like, and chemical signals are to distribute scent information in various ways. These two are similar to human beings. Almost like a warning sign."

Isn't that all about declaring territory?

Regardless of whether it is a physical signal or a chemical signal, if the mark is useless, fight it, if one fight fails, then fight a few fights, and if it is not enough, fight to death.

Xiao Jia wondered why Feng Yi was interested in these things?

After saying a few words, Xiao Jia observed Feng Yi's reaction.

With Feng Yi's expression, I couldn't tell whether he agreed or not, but he must have listened, and I don't know what was going on in his heart.

After waiting for a while, Feng Yi asked Xiao Jia to rest, and continued to watch the documentary by himself. After finishing washing up, he lay on the bed and thought about ways to declare his territory.

Instinct told him that relevant information was recorded in his ancestral DNA, but he had to try it himself to know how to operate it.

I don't know if it's because he thought too much before going to bed. At night, Feng Yi had many messy dreams, but he couldn't remember them when he woke up.

Before going out in the morning, Feng Yi asked Xiao Jia to prepare for the yacht to go out to sea in the evening, because he had something to do.

Xiao Jia didn't ask any more questions, but responded excitedly.It is enough for him to execute, and he will do what the boss says.

Although I don't know what Feng Yi is going to do, but it doesn't matter, he finally has a place to use his skills!

Where to go to sea, what time of day, and which direction, he already knows it in his mind, and he will confirm it later.

As for fishing...

What fish to catch!

Is fishing as fun as going out to sea with the boss?

It would be even better if the boss can bring him along to make troubles!

Xiao Jia rushed out excitedly.

Feng Yi was the same as the previous few days. After breakfast, he went out to sea with the investigation team. However, today he was on a half-day mission and returned at noon.The bosses are going to hold a few important meetings. Non-core members like Feng Yi do not need to attend this meeting.

Nothing else, but with many questions in his mind, Feng Yi couldn't stay in the dormitory, so he took a nap in the dormitory and was ready to go out.

He changed his work clothes and wore a simple sweater with sunglasses hanging from his neckline.

Ever since he was recognized by others when he went foraging for food in the street for the first time, Feng Yi didn't know how to wear work clothes when he went out for a stroll.

At the north gate of the dormitory area, Feng Yi saw Professor Ding walking in from the outside.

The big black dog who was in charge of guarding the north gate probably got to know Professor Ding well, so he came over wagging his tail.

While stroking the dog, Professor Ding chatted with Lao Liu in the sentry box, and raised his hand to greet Feng Yi when he saw Feng Yi.

Feng Yi walked over and asked him: "The meeting is over so soon?"

Professor Ding waved his hand, "I've already given them the data and analysis report. Anyway, I don't always follow the investigation team here. We still have our own tasks. Let them decide what to do here."

Then he asked Feng Yi, "How did you read the courseware yesterday? Do you have any questions?"

Feng Yi, who thought about "declaring the territory" all night and didn't read the courseware: "... yes."

Professor Ding became interested, "Tell me, I happen to have time now."

Feng Yi: "It's not in the courseware, but I thought of it when I read other materials. Can different species really communicate through chemical substances?"

Professor Ding said, "Of course!"

Without the slightest hesitation.

Professor Ding: "The various trophic levels of the food chain in the ecosystem have formed complex interrelationships during the long-term co-evolution process in nature. The chemical substances released by plants or animals play an important role in information communication and have also formed extremely complex relationships. A lot of people are interested in this kind of chemical information communication, but so far, we have only scratched the surface."

Thinking that Feng Yi is not professional in theoretical knowledge, Professor Ding changed his words, "Speaking of this, I have to mention the sense of smell. For example, if you are sensitive to a certain substance, when you smell it, the relevant olfactory organs Olfactory receptors are activated to form specific olfactory perception pathways. Do you know 'olfactory receptors'? They are special proteins that can bind to odor molecules and are responsible for transmitting odor signals to the brain."

Feng Yi nodded: "Yes, I know."

"Generally, we believe that the more 'olfactory receptor' genes you have, the stronger your olfactory ability. Different species have different olfactory abilities. We humans have about 400 species, which can only be considered average in this respect."

Professor Ding has nothing else to do now, so why not rush to do something, sitting on the edge of the flower bed.

"For example, this dog, the dog's sense of smell is much stronger than that of humans..."

Professor Ding waved at the big black dog.

The big black dog came over wagging its tail, and then, its protruding beak was caught.

Dogs have more facial expressions than wolves, and the most spiritual ones are the muscles at the eyebrows, which flick and shake, coupled with the hesitant wagging tail, which directly shows its contradictory inner activities.

But Professor Ding didn't care about its little psychology at this time.

"When it smells something, part of the air goes to the respiratory system, and the other part..."

Professor Ding moved his fingertips along the central axis above the dog's nose, between the eyes, and tapped lightly:

"... leads to the olfactory crypt. Odor molecules will complete olfactory detection on this special structure. They can accurately identify a certain odor in a complex environment, and even know which odors are smelled from which nostrils .”

Letting go of the long beak of the big black dog, Professor Ding looked up and saw the flying birds flashing in the sky:
"For another example, this bird, in people's general perception, except for vultures and other birds that hunt by scent, most other birds have almost no sense of smell. But their genes tell us that is not the case. Genome sequencing can It was found that many birds have olfactory receptor genes, ranging from about 100 to more than 600.

"Studying the evolutionary tree can find that the ancestors of birds probably had very diverse olfactory receptor genes, allowing them to distinguish some important odor information. There are many chemical information that they are not sensitive to, and we do not know the information they are sensitive to, or Little is known."

Professor Ding looked at Feng Yi: "If you want to study the chemical information communication between species, you can't think about it from the human point of view. Their olfactory world is different from ours. You can't imagine the world they perceive. Yes. What a world."

Feeling Feng Yi in a different world: "...you are right."

Thinking of something, Professor Ding smiled again and said: "No, no, I was wrong just now, and I said it too absolutely. You are also human, but you are different from us!"

Feng Yi's heart skipped a beat, but his expression remained the same, and his face was calm: "What's the difference?"

Professor Ding: "For example, you are sensitive to the smell of snakes and can smell smells that we can't smell. You may have more olfactory genes than most of us. There are indeed a small number of people in the world. To be precise, they are Very few people have a hypersensitive sense of smell. You are lucky to be one of them."

Feng Yi let out a long breath and said, "Individuals are different."

"Yes, that's it. But no matter what, we humans can't compare with those species with a strong sense of smell." Professor Ding sighed slightly, "I now hope that the electronic nose can speed up the upgrade, and maybe one day I can use the instrument to know that it has a strong sense of smell. Species with a sense of smell, what kind of world do they see? Are you looking forward to it too?"

Feng Yi: "... um."

Professor Ding complained again, "Human odor receptors are disappointing. There are so many ideas. They don't necessarily all work in your nose, and they may exert force in some strange places!"

Feng Yi was curious: "For example?"

Professor Ding: "For example, hair follicles. There are olfactory receptors in human hair follicles. If it smells certain 'correct' smells, it will be specifically activated. Although it won't tell you what it smells like, it can prevent hair follicles from degenerating. , or rather - anti-hair loss!"

Not far away, a young worker's eyes were burning, and he couldn't help asking: "So, where can I buy this 'correct' scent?"

Professor Ding touched the top of his slightly bald head, "Ah, I want to know too."

Feng Yi had no other questions, so Professor Ding started discussing with that person how to prevent hair loss gracefully.

Feng Yi has no such troubles for the time being, so he will not participate in their discussion for now.

Walking to the street, putting on the hood of the sweater and the sunglasses, Feng Yi took a shared bicycle and came to a small park near the sea.

Xiaojia said that there are not many tourists here, and this time period is not a time when there are many people.

The weather is fine today with sea breeze blowing.

There are no people here at this time, but it is not deserted, and there are still those sparrows chirping on the trees.

The sparrows here are very courageous. It can be seen that whether tourists or local residents here are very friendly to them, they form groups from time to time, and actively or passively get some food from people.

They were probably full, and they were very active among the branches.

A few stared at Feng Yi, then turned away uninterested.Even if Feng Yi approached, he just flapped his wings perfunctorily, and then continued to ignore.

Feng Yi identified the direction of the wind, and raised his hand towards the sparrows on the tree.

The pupils of the eyes behind the sunglasses gradually became vertical.

Chemical substances that ordinary people can't see or smell, emanate from the skin of the palm, heading towards the group of sparrows.

Organisms that are not sensitive to this kind of chemical information substance can't perceive anything, but what they can feel is different.

This group of sparrows seems to have seen a bloody mouth with two fangs rushing towards it!

The sparrows who were originally distracted suddenly screamed and flew away in a panic.

A single sparrow will not cause much movement, but a group of sparrows suddenly fly away as if fleeing, which will inevitably attract the attention of nearby people.

Scattered people looked at that corner and saw nothing, only a person in a sweater sitting there basking in the sun, and the others were nothing special.

The sea breeze blows away the invisible and unsmelly substances in the air.

Everything around was still as peaceful and beautiful as before.

"Could it be that the wild cats came to catch sparrows again?" said an old lady.

"Not necessarily, sparrows are always surprised."

"No, the sparrows here are very brave!"

"It's okay, they will fly back later."

However, until the sun went down, the group of sparrows that flew away did not fly back to the tree, at most they just jumped on other branches in the park, but in that corner, not a single sparrow flew past.

　see you tomorrow

　
(End of this chapter)