In 2022, researchers asked a group of 407 American students a question. If they had to give up one of their senses, which would they most willingly live without? Fewer than 2 per cent said they would want to lose their sight; 13 per cent suggested their hearing should be the first to go.

More than eight in 10 suggested they’d be happiest to give up their sense of smell. So little did they value this function, that a quarter of respondents told researchers they would forfeit their sense of smell if they had to choose between that and being able to keep their mobile phones.

For Professor Barry Smith, the founding director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses at the University of London, this decision is misguided and scientifically wrong-headed.

“A study published in the Internationa

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