For many animal species the detection of odours eliciting attraction or avoidance reactions can be important for life or death. We, however, spray ourselves with synthetic perfumes: unaware of how delicate and crucial the sense of smell is for other animals.

Olfaction is of major importance for the survival of insects, the real experts on the sense of smell. "It is quite an event to 'watch' and to 'hear' instruments pick up nerve impulses which are elicited by the insect olfactory receptor cells when they have been stimulated with odorants of biological importance", says Hanna Mustaparta, professor of zoology at NTNU.

Mustaparta has established a research group at NTNU, the only one in Norway studying insect olfaction/neurobiology and behaviour.

The researchers at NTNU has employed a variety of methods to present the odours to the insects; odours that humans either cannot smell or at amounts below what we can detect.

But the insects are very responsive. The response can be seen and heard: "The sensory cells of insects are able to fire more than 200 impulses per second. In the research setting, these impulses are made visible and transformed into sound by amplifier and loudspeaker, producing a very nice rhythmic pattern which create a jolly atmosphere in the laboratory", says Mustaparta.