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Columnist and Health

How we could achieve dog-level sense of smell – and what it would mean

Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions yet to come – this time how, by the mid-21st century, many people were opting for a "nose job" that would supercharge their sense of smell. Rowan Hooper is our guide.

By Rowan Hooper

12 March 2025

PPW5E4 The Nose art installation in St. Lorenz, Austria

“Most people were happy to accept a slightly more bulbous nose than before”

K.D. Leperi/Alamy

In the olden days, a “nose job” referred to a cosmetic surgical procedure to improve the shape of someone’s nose. By the mid-21st century, it signified the “super smell” procedure whereby a person’s olfactory sense was augmented and supercharged. In this case, people went from having the standard human number of 6 million olfactory receptors in the nasal cavity, to over 100 million, the average in a canine nose. Human sense of smell became equivalent to that of a dog.

This wasn’t without its challenges.…

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