Timeline for What measurable quantity can constrain the number of odors human can discriminate?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
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| Nov 9, 2014 at 16:34 | comment | added | Tom Leinster | I'm dismayed at the votes to close and Stefan's critique. Yoav carefully explained the issues in such a way that a mathematician with no knowledge of this biological system could make a meaningful contribution. If we close this question, we might as well put a banner on the front page saying "applied math questions not welcome here". | |
| Nov 9, 2014 at 14:17 | vote | accept | Yoav Kallus | ||
| Nov 9, 2014 at 7:03 | answer | added | Robert Israel | timeline score: 8 | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 16:10 | comment | added | Yoav Kallus | Sorry, should be "lie in the same partition" | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 15:44 | comment | added | Yoav Kallus | @StefanKohl I thought that I did. To summarize: X is partitioned into sets S_1,...,S_N. The critical distance above which less than 0.5 of pairs of a fixed distance in X lie in different partitions does not constrain N well. What measurement does? | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 14:52 | comment | added | Stefan Kohl♦ | @YoavKallus: I think firstly it is a serious biology / medicine question, but rather not a mathematical one, and secondly, you cannot expect exact answers. If you see an underlying mathematical question which can be stated without mentioning the biological context, then that may be on-topic here. | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 13:54 | comment | added | Yoav Kallus | @StefanKohl, do you say that because you think there is no quantity that would constrain N in the model I set up in the question? Do you have a reason to think that? Or is it more that you think this model is inadequate? The model comes straight out of the Science paper, so it is definitely one that biologists take seriously. | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 13:19 | comment | added | NAME_IN_CAPS | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_scent_technology "In 1999, DigiScents developed a computer peripheral device called iSmell, which was designed to emit a smell when a user visited a web site or opened an email. The device contained a cartridge with 128 "primary odors", which could be mixed to replicate natural and man-made odors. DigiScents had indexed thousands of common odors, which could be coded, digitized, and embedded into web pages or email." Well, I'm not sure what spam (or a virus) would be would this system... | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 11:15 | comment | added | Stefan Kohl♦ | I don't think one can shed much light on this by mathematical means -- rather I think this is a genuine biology question to which, if at all, you can find an answer by investigating the olfactory system. But also bear in mind that there might be not a well-defined answer, as things may differ a lot between individuals, and for the same individual between different times of measurement. | |
| Nov 8, 2014 at 10:31 | review | Close votes | |||
| Nov 8, 2014 at 18:33 | |||||
| Nov 8, 2014 at 2:44 | history | edited | Yoav Kallus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 61 characters in body
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| Nov 8, 2014 at 0:34 | history | asked | Yoav Kallus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |