Studying esthesioneuroblastoma tonight, and I started to wonder, how do you explain smell to someone? If an alien came down to Earth, how would you explain it to them?

Sure, it’s chemicals in the air that you can interpret as… a smell. But smell just seems more subtle. Sounds, sights, touch, they’re more explicit and obvious. If someone lacks a sense of smell, how would you explain it to them in a way that made sense? I’m totally stumped, in one of those interesting philosophical conundrums that only happens late at night as your brain is frantically trying to keep you from studying.

And that made me think, if we had another sense, what would that even *be* like? Senses are just our bodies interpreting our environments–photons of light, air vibrations making sound, touch being neurons firing in response to being pushed a bit… So say we could detect some other kind of external stimulus. Say, radiation for example. How would we experience it? I feel like my imagination is limited by my very experience of the world. I keep wanting to ask myself, “Would it be a color, or warm, or pain?” But it wouldn’t have to be any of those. It could be like… geez, I don’t even know. How cool.

(Okay, yes, fine, I admit it. I’m back on coffee.)

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