{"id":1503,"date":"2022-06-10T16:36:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T16:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/?p=1503"},"modified":"2022-06-10T16:36:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T16:36:34","slug":"scientists-reveal-what-death-smells-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/scientists-reveal-what-death-smells-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Reveal What Death Smells Like"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite all the achievements of modern science, human death remains a mystery to us. We know catastrophically little about this stage of human life and collect information literally bit by bit. Only recently have scientists learned what death smells like. No, we are talking not only about the smell of decomposition but about aromas, both pleasant and not very, exhaled by a dead body at different periods of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is well known that a sweet smell emanates from the dead. Its origin was discussed in antiquity, but due to the lack of technology, its nature could not be studied. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the German chemist and anatomist Ludwig Brieger was able to identify the ingredients of this smell. They turned out to be two substances – putrescine and cadaverine. They were products of the natural decomposition of proteins by putrefactive bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientist, without hesitation, called them “cadaveric poisons.” Mysterious Putrescine But in humans, only putrescine is associated with death. And it happens on a subconscious level. The University of Kent conducted an experiment in which participants were given samples with the smell of water, cadaverine, and putrescine. Of the three fragrances, only the last evoked an inexplicable sense of unease. The psychologist Arno Wismann, who led the experiment, made a bold suggestion about this. In his opinion, dying people smell putrescine, as decay processes begin in their bodies. This topic interested the scientist so much that he continued the experiments and learned a lot of interesting things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arno Wisman has joined forces with his colleague at Arkansas Tech University, Ilan Shrira. Together, they assembled a group of 12 volunteers and asked them to sniff just two samples. The scientists told the participants of the experiment that the smells were different, but in fact, it was two containers with the same substance – putrescine. Both subjects responded in exactly the same way to both odors. Under the influence of putrescine, everyone became focused, cautious and aggressive. Wisman and Shrira attributed this to natural memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in the subconscious of a person that the smell of death is a danger. Therefore, the body mobilizes forces to resist it. The smell of cut grass But the opinion of psychologists is one thing, but what do chemists think about it? Researchers at the University of Huddersfield have determined that the so-called putrid odor does not appear immediately. First, the deceased person begins to exude the aroma of freshly cut grass. We learned this through a simple experiment. The carcasses of freshly slaughtered pigs were placed in airtight boxes. Air samples were taken from them every few minutes and immediately studied. It turned out that immediately after death, the body begins to digest its cells. At the same time, hexanal is released – a substance with a pleasant smell of fresh mowing. That is what is present in freshly cut grass. Almost everyone likes this smell, and no one associates it with death. So scientists have found that before or immediately after death, the corpse of a person or animal smells pleasant. But the dying person himself, most likely, does not feel this smell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most often, just before death, people lose their sense of smell and cease to distinguish any smells. Scientists from Stockholm University conducted a 10-year study involving 1,774 participants. These people were between 40 and 90 years old. Every year, each participant was offered 10 different scents and asked to describe them. It turns out that with age, the perception of smells changes greatly. At the same time, people, shortly before death, began to recognize aromas worse. It was found that each incorrectly identified smell increased the likelihood of imminent death by 8 percent. Exploring the smell of death may seem strange. But this is not the most unusual question related to our sense of smell. Not so long ago, scientists set out to find out how outer space smells. Think it’s impossible? But no – the answer was received.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite all the achievements of modern science, human death remains a mystery to us. We know catastrophically little about this stage of human life and collect information literally bit by bit. Only recently have scientists learned what death smells like. No, we are talking not only about the smell of decomposition but about aromas, both …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-life-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1505,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503\/revisions\/1505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}