量子鼻

英国的物理学家Marshall Stoneham和他在伦敦大学的同事们通过计算发现，人的鼻子可能是通过将分子振动转化为电流来识别不同气味分子的不同形状，从而分辨气味的。而这些电流是通过电子的量子隧道跃迁效应而产生的。
The quantum nose (Dec 22) http://physicsweb.org/article/news/10/12/14
Our sense of smell could rely on the tunnelling of electrons within "receptors" in our noses, claim physicists in the UK. Marshall Stoneham and colleagues at University College London have performed calculations that suggest our noses detect odour by converting molecular vibrations into an electrical current -- in addition to recognizing the shapes of odour molecules (Phys. Rev. Lett. in press).