Your sense of smell involves much more than enjoying a hike through an aromatic pine forest or appreciating delicious foods.1,2
Our ability to smell is known as olfactory reception, and there’s nothing simple about it. God has equipped us with about 12 million special structures called olfactory receptors.3 These sensors detect a variety of odorants as they enter our nasal passages. As those fragrant molecules pass to our olfactory bulbs, specific information about the smell is processed and sent to the amygdala and hippocampus, structures of the brain responsible for strong emotion and memory formation, respectively.
Mice have been used to help scientists gradually understand this enigmatic sense of smell. Researchers produced a stunning and comprehensive map showing the arrangement of thousands of different types of receptors embedded in the rodents’ noses.4 Before the map was created, conventional scientists assumed the receptors were randomly arranged because they had trouble locating them. But they instead found that “spatial order in the olfactory system . . . arises from a continuously varying transcriptional code that precisely organizes the many discrete channels responsible for smell.”5
The research has revealed exquisite organization, structure, and design. This would be expected on the basis of creation. Lead author and neurobiologist Sandeep Datta commented, “Our results bring order to a system that was previously thought to lack order, which changes conceptually how we think this [the sense of smell] works.”4 Indeed, even Harvard Medical School stated, “The map reveals that smell receptors are highly organized into tight bands based on type.”6 Effective organization requires intentional planning and design. What these conventional scientists are really admitting is the receptors exhibit detailed planning, as if they were designed to operate as orderly as they do.
Conversely, evidence for the evolution of olfaction is indistinct at best, as “the precise evolutionary and developmental delineation of the olfactory system becomes blurry when one considers the details.”7
Out of all the senses in people and animals, smell is probably the least understood. However, the research highlighted here suggests that a truly mysterious ability is slowly being deciphered.
References
- Sherwin, F. The Sweet Smell of Creation. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org June 2, 2022.
- Sherwin, F. The Incredible Canine Sniffer. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org August 18, 2022.
- Sherwin, F. 2006. Those Amazing G Protein Receptors. Acts & Facts. 35 (12).
- Cockerill, J. Scientists Have Created the First Ever ‘Smell Map’, and It’s Stunning. ScienceAlert. Posted on sciencealert.com May 7, 2026.
- Brann, D. H. et al. 2026. A Spatial Code Governs Olfactory Receptor Choice and Aligns Sensory Maps in the Nose and Brain. Cell. 189 (11).
- Caruso, C. Scientists Create First-Ever ‘Smell Map.’ Harvard University news release. Posted on hms.harvard.edu April 28, 2026.
- Poncelet, G. and S. M. Shimeld. 2020. The Evolutionary Origins of the Vertebrate Olfactory System. Open Biology. 10 (12), article 200330.
* Dr. Sherwin is a science news writer at the Institute for Creation Research. He earned an M.A. in invertebrate zoology from the University of Northern Colorado and received an honorary doctorate of science from Pensacola Christian College.
