Heard That Humans Can Smell 10,000 Odors? Here’s Why You Heard That.
If you poke around online, you’ll find someone claiming authoritatively that humans can distinguish 10,000 odors. Unfortunately, that’s not true. It’s based on an experiment from the 1920s, that tried — and failed — to quantify smell. But here’s how it became a pop fact.
Source: io9