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Thanks to your link, I discovered this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_theory_of_olfaction

Had no idea it's just a theory. I've lived many years "knowing" that we detect smells due to their shapes.

This paper is the first structure of any odorant receptor-ligand interaction. There's currently no equivalent structure for mammalian odorant receptors to validate the docking theory, but it's likely correct.

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