Chapter 211 Smell

Xiao Jia scratched his head, "Declaring territory... generally through physical signals or chemical signals. Physical signals are scratches and bites, and chemical signals are to emit odor information through various means. These two are similar to humans putting up boundary markers or warning signs."

Aren't there just a few ways to declare territory?

Regardless of physical signals or chemical signals, if marking doesn't work, then fight. If one fight doesn't work, then fight several times. If that doesn't work, then fight to death.

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

He said a few simple words, and then Xiao Jia observed Feng Yi's reaction.

Feng Yi's expression didn't show whether he agreed or not, but he must have listened to it. I don't know what he was thinking.

After waiting for a while, Feng Yi asked Xiao Jia to rest and continued to watch the documentary. After watching it, he washed up and lay on the bed, thinking about how to declare territory.

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

I don’t know if it’s because I think too much before going to bed, Feng Yi had a lot of messy dreams at night, but I can’t remember them when I wake up.

Before going out in the morning, Feng Yi asked Xiaojia to get ready. He had something to do when he drove the yacht out to sea at night.

Xiaojia didn’t ask much, and responded excitedly. He just had to execute it. He would do whatever the boss said.

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

He already knows where to go out to sea, what time, and which direction. He will confirm it later.

As for fishing...

What fish to catch!

Is fishing more fun than going out to sea with the boss?

It would be even better if the boss could take him with him when he did something!

Xiaojia went out excitedly.

Feng Yi went out to sea with the investigation team after breakfast, just like the previous few days, but today was a half-day mission and he returned at noon. The bosses are going to hold several important meetings. This time, non-core members like Feng Yi don’t have to attend the meeting.

There was nothing else to do, and there were many questions in his mind. Feng Yi couldn't stay in the dormitory, so he took a nap in the dormitory and prepared to go out.

He changed out of his work clothes and put on a simple sweater with sunglasses hanging on his collar.

Ever since he was recognized for the first time when he went out to find food on the street, Feng Yi would not wear work clothes when he went out to hang out.

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

The big black dog guarding the north gate probably got acquainted with Professor Ding, and came over with a wag of his tail.

Professor Ding touched the dog while chatting with Lao Liu in the sentry box. When he saw Feng Yi, he raised his hand and said hello.

Feng Yi walked over and asked him, "Is the meeting over so soon?"

Professor Ding waved his hand, "I have already given them the data and analysis report. Anyway, I won't be following the investigation team here all the time. We have our own tasks. Let them decide on the things here."

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

Feng Yi, who had been thinking about "claiming territory" all night and had not read the courseware, said, "...Yes."

Professor Ding was interested, "Tell me about it. I happen to have time now."

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

Professor Ding said, "Of course!"

Without any hesitation.

Professor Ding: "In the long-term evolution of nature, the various trophic levels of the food chain of the ecosystem have formed complex relationships. The chemical substances released by plants or animals play an important role in information communication and have formed an extremely complex information network. Many people are interested in this kind of chemical information communication, but so far, we have only learned the basics."

Thinking that Feng Yi is not professional in theoretical knowledge, Professor Ding changed the subject and said, "Speaking of this, we have to mention the sense of smell. For example, if you are sensitive to a certain substance, when you smell it, the relevant olfactory receptors on the olfactory organ are activated, forming a specific olfactory perception pathway. Do you know what 'olfactory receptors' are? 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 we have, the stronger our sense of smell is. Different species have different senses of smell. We humans have about 400 species, which can only be considered average in this regard."

Professor Ding has nothing else to do now, so he is not in a hurry to do anything, so he sits on the edge of the flower bed.

"For example, this dog, a dog's sense of smell is much stronger than a human's..."

Professor Ding waved at the big black dog.

The big black dog came over with its tail wagging, and then its protruding long mouth was grabbed.

Dogs have more facial expressions than wolves, and the most spiritual is the muscles at the position of its eyebrows, which tremble and shake, and the hesitant wagging tail, which directly shows its contradictory inner activities.

But Professor Ding didn't pay attention to 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's fingertips moved along the central axis above the dog's nose to between the eyes, and gently tapped:

"...to the olfactory crypt. Odor molecules will complete olfactory detection on this special structure. They can accurately identify a certain smell in a complex environment, and even clearly know which smells are smelled by which nostrils."

Releasing the big black dog's long mouth, Professor Ding looked up and saw a bird flashing across the sky:

"Take this bird as an example again. In people's common understanding, except for vultures and other birds that hunt by smell, most other birds have almost no sense of smell. But their genes tell us that this is not the case. Through genome sequencing, we can It was found that many birds have olfactory receptor genes, ranging from about 100 to more than 600.

"Studying the evolutionary tree shows that the ancestors of birds likely 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 that 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 from a human perspective. Their olfactory world is different from ours. You can't imagine the world they perceive. What a world.”

Feng Yi, who felt a different world: "...You are right."

Thinking of something, Professor Ding smiled again and said: "No, no, no, I just said it wrong, it was too absolute. We are both human beings, but you are different from us!"

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

Professor Ding: "For example, if you are sensitive to the smell of snakes and can smell smells that we cannot smell, you may have more olfactory genes than most of us. There is indeed a small group of people in the world, to be precise, There are very few people who have a hypersensitive sense of smell. You are one of them.”

Feng Yi took a long breath without leaving a trace and said: "There are differences among individuals."

"Yes, that's it. But no matter what, we humans can't compare with those species that have a strong sense of smell." Professor Ding sighed, "I now hope that the electronic nose can speed up its upgrade. Maybe one day I can use the instrument to know that I have Are you also looking forward to what kind of world they see with their gifted sense of smell?”

Feng Yi: "...Yeah."

Professor Ding complained again, "Human odor receptors are not up to par. There are many ideas. They may not all act on your nose, and they may also exert force in some strange places!"

Feng Yi was curious: "For example?"

Professor Ding: "For example, hair follicles. Human hair follicles also have olfactory receptors. If they smell certain 'correct' smells, they will be specifically activated. Although they won't tell you what the smell is, it can prevent hair follicles from degenerating. , or in other words - prevent hair loss! ”

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

Professor Ding touched his slightly bald head and said, "Ah, I want to know too."

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

Feng Yi didn't have this kind of trouble for the time being, so he stopped participating in their discussion.

Walking to the street, Feng Yi put on the hood of his sweatshirt and sunglasses. He bought a shared bicycle and came to a small park near the sea.

Xiao Jia said that there are not many tourists here, and this time period is not a crowded time.

The weather is nice today, with sea breeze blowing.

There was no one here at this time, but it was not deserted. There were also sparrows chirping in the trees.

The sparrows here are very courageous. It can be seen that both tourists and local residents here are very friendly to them. They form groups from time to time and actively or passively get some food from people's hands.

Probably because they were full, each one was very energetic and active among the branches.

A few stared at Feng Yi and then turned away without interest. Even if Feng Yi came closer, he would just flap his wings and do a perfunctory hop, and then continue to ignore him.

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

The pupils behind the sunglasses gradually became vertical.

Chemical substances that ordinary people could not see or smell emitted from the skin of the palm and headed towards the group of sparrows.

Creatures that are insensitive to this chemical information substance cannot detect anything, but what they can feel is different.

This group of sparrows seemed to see a bloody mouth with two fangs coming towards them!

The sparrows, who had been distracted, suddenly screamed and flew away in panic.

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

There were people scattered everywhere. They looked at that corner and saw nothing. There was only a man in a sweatshirt sitting there and basking in the sun. Others were nothing special.

The wind at the seaside disperses the invisible and unsmellable substances in the air.

Everything around him was still as peaceful and beautiful as before.

"Is there another wild cat coming to catch sparrows?" said an old lady.

"Not necessarily, sparrows are always startled."

"No, the sparrows here are so bold!"

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

However, until the sun went down, the group of sparrows that flew away never flew back to that tree. At most, they just jumped on other branches in the park, but not a single sparrow flew over that corner.

See you tomorrow