A ram smells a ewe at a distance of 300 m, how is that system working on the molecular level, on the particle level on the biological level in case this is working in season?
A ewe recognizes the lamb by the smell, the lamb by the first sound of the ewe, by which memory system is this regulated?
Is quantum biology needed to understand this?
I would argue that space-time has the capability to transact virtual smell like it exchanges virtual so called particles. I think that we need a new understanding of quantum motion because what we may denote as quantum biology is not yet quantum biology. A ram has intelligence, though we human beings would dequalify this as merely non-cognitive, and the 300 meters space and time between sheep and lamb reflect that intelligent process; hence have their own intelligence. Said differently, what we use to call intelligence is a most complex virtual interactive process which we do not yet understand. It is not localizable as a property of a single individual whether man or sheep.
300 m is between ram and ewe. The lamb has to hear just once after birth his mother to recognize her all the time, while the mother is using the smell all the time to recognize her lamb.
The system is very selective, it must transcend the smell and become a kind of consciousness, humans project too much on themselves, qualities they don't even can imagine.
With the theory of the binding of the molecule of odorant to a single olfactory receptor, that molecule has to travel probably from the preorbital gland of the ewe to the nose of the ram, who is 300 m further on. These scent glands would be at the feet and face of the sheep. In the mating period these glands have also be regulated by hormones and the olfactory receptors on the olfactory neurons adjusted.
It's a long way to travel.
There can be two major points by which the current physical and chemical theory explains the process.
First, the ewe produces more than one molecule – but a lots of them, which diffuse in the air to all possible directions. The concentration of the odorant over the distance can drop strongly, but wind can bring enough molecules to the nose of a ram. Here we have the second principal ingredient, which is called ‘affinity’. Essentially, this is the probability that the scent molecule will bind with a specific olfactory receptor. This probability for a given odorant and its receptor can be very high and it is where quantum science can be involved (to explain the exclusively high affinity between the odorant molecule and its receptor).
Something new for me is that high affinity, exclusivity can be explained by quantum science. There is also the exclusivity of ion gates. It is a relationship that is kept a bit secret. May be we need another science for that; an exclusivity science on its own. This seems more attractive. Much more could be explained by that.
Thank you Hashem, gene expression is close to poetry, may be they have the same roots.
Let me introduce our colleague Miranda Yeoh, please check out her RG page
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miranda_Yeoh
She teaches biology, and not only finds poetry in gene expression but also composed a song and uses these songs to teach RNA transcription, electronic transport chain, light-dependent reactions in photosynthesis as ‘musical mnemonics’. Her results are really amazing!
Thank you Zaal, Miranda Yeoh is wellknown on RG I follow her publication.
"Miranda Yeoh is wellknown on RG." Rita, what does it mean to be well known on RG? Are you well known to me? Am I well known to you?
We cannot just declare arts to be science. If you transform, say, music into a field of science, or biology, or, say, any field of science, into arts, you must at least clarify at first, if the instrument of transformation belongs to arts or to science. I think there are some of us who know how such an instrument would look like, and I think about a contribution by Christine Wertheim which demands a profound understanding of logic, mathematical and philosophical issues. There is something, at least, like Spencer Brown’s laws of form or Peirce’s existential graphs, as Christine points out, and some more things that have to enter the discourse, in order that we can claim that our instrument of transformation is one of science. Otherwise we would end up with speculation and ideology which I would like to oppose with some old hints of the ‘Wiener Kreis’, people who have understood and experienced where this can end.
“How does the smell mechanism of sheep work?”
Some decades ago, flocks of sheep were typical of the mountainous regions of Portugal (with its wonderful green landscapes). Absence of own personality is frequently associated to these domestic animals (but I do not know if correctly or wrongly). “A ram smells a ewe at a distance of 300 m”. This can be connected to any sexual impulse or to the instinct of preservation of the species?
The links below are about “Reproduction in the ram” and “The ‘ram effect’ as a way of modifying the reproductive activity in the ewe”, but I suppose that both references do not mention specifically that capacity.
http://www.sheep101.info/201/ramrepro.html
http://cita.angra.uac.pt/ficheiros/publicacoes/1257511645.pdf
Of course it has to do with reproduction. What astonished me is that selectivity over 300 m. Logic thinking this is far, as we see that there are so many odorant molecules in the air and those of the ewe must be very much diluted over a distance of 300m.
What is general accepted by now is that this high selectivity points to the quantum biology.
There is also a vibrational theory of smell. So the smell is captured by the vibrational frequency of the chemical, this is one step further than the molecular level.
This quantum tunnelling theory would be accepted together with the shape of the olfactory receptor according to Robert H. Wright.
It's always good to keep in mind the ram and the ewe.
If you are ambitious to found a new science, measure a smell.
Alexander Graham Bell, 1914
We also can ask the question if sheep possess the quality of synesthesia:
A sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.
In case this is true, then the ram can also taste the ewe and see beautiful colors.
What we have lost, some animals conserved.
After observing the sheep I'm astonished how attentive they are for the change of food, the time of feeding and the selections they made. They are not aggressive but know a certain play which I didn’t well understand.
When a lamb is taken away from her mother for a time, it will never be accepted again as a member of the group. I think that this phenomena is also based on the smell, when a lamb has the smell of humans the mother decides that this is not good for the survival and indeed a lamb is losing many qualities if taken away from the group.
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