The Science Behind a Dog’s Fantastic Sense of Smell

In a clip from the John Downer Productions/BBC/PBS series Pets Wild at Heart, the elegant voice of David Tennant explains the science behind a dog’s fantastic sense of smell. They also reveal how a dog’s olfactory physiology works using specialized Schlieren photography, which captures fluid flow in slow motion.

Specialised filming technique known as Schlieren photography shows how smell not only plays a part in searching for food in the dog world but also in romantic liaisons.