Prof Matthew Cobb is interested in animal behaviour & psychology, and seeks his answers through research into the sense of smell.  

We talked about what effect Covid could be having which is causing a loss of smell and taste, how smell differs across the diversity of life, and what looking into smell can tell us about the effects of today's anthropogenic changes.  

0:00 COVID & loss of smell 

14:30 Can you regain loss of smell? 

18:20 How do you study smell? 

30:35 Pheromones 

40:50 Global & cultural differences in smelling 

48:25 Effects of anthropogenic changes

The 2nd half of this podcast focuses on Matthew's work in the history of science, so is available separately in the next episode.   

This is a series of in-depth conversations with fascinating people, with loads to say about the current state of the world, everything that came before us, and everything that could be still to come.    

We hope you enjoy.  

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Refs & Links: 

https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/cobb.html

AS Barwich Smellosophy https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51579757-smellosophy 

Matthew's Links:  

https://twitter.com/matthewcobb

The Idea Of The Brain: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51719771-the-idea-of-the-brain

Smell: A Very Short Introduction: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52049783-smell 

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