Smell, sneezing, the nostrils, and a nose that runs for no clear reason.
Showing 5 oddities.
The nose does two jobs. It warms and wets every breath before the air reaches the lungs, and it holds the sense of smell. Smell also makes up much of what people call flavour, so a difference in the nose often shows up as a difference in taste.
Some entries here are differences in smell receptors, the proteins that detect smells. Tasting soap in cilantro, and not smelling asparagus in urine, are both linked to common differences in genes for smell receptors. The food is the same for everyone. What each nose picks up from it is not.
Other entries are the lining of the nose reacting to a trigger. Reflex runny nose starts with cold air, exercise, or spicy food, with no cold and no allergy. The photic sneeze reflex makes some people sneeze when they step into bright light. Flaring nostrils is a small muscle that almost everyone uses without thinking, and only some people can move on command.
Most of what the nose does happens without you noticing. These are the moments when you do notice it, and almost none of them mean anything is wrong.
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After eating asparagus, many people notice a smell like cooked cabbage in their urine. Others never notice it. Two separate traits hide here. Some people do not make the smell, and some people cannot smell it.
In one large survey, about one person in eight said fresh cilantro tastes like soap. The difference is thought to lie mostly in smell, not taste. Genes play a part, but the one variant found so far explains very little of it.
Widening the nostrils on purpose. No study has counted how many people can do it on command. It also happens on its own during hard breathing and in strong emotion such as anger.
About one person in four sneezes when they step into bright sunlight. It runs in families, and the leading idea is a wiring mix-up between the nerve for the eyes and the nerve for the nose.
Exercise, cold air and hot or spicy food can all make a clear, watery drip run from the nose. It is mainly a nerve reflex, not a cold or an allergy. During exercise the nose even opens wider, yet in many people it still runs.