Many animals, from sharks to elephants, are champions of olfaction (smelling).

Dogs are the most famous. Through their sense of smell, dogs can tell which direction a person traveled and even can distinguish between identical twins.

Dogs can be trained to detect just about anything, including electronic devices.

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About Ed Yong:

Ed Yong is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer on the staff of The Atlantic, where he also won the George Polk Award for science reporting, among other honors. His first book, I Contain Multitudes, was a New York Times bestseller and won numerous awards. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Wired, The New York Times, Scientific American, and more. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Liz Neeley, and their corgi, Typo.

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