Perhaps you puzzled over the headline, but it will soon make sense.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have described a new class of cells in the lungs that, like those in the nose, possess odor receptors. Their job isn't to help conjure up mental images of sweet-smelling flowers or toasted bread, but to recognize nastier, perhaps undetected, smells and then make you cough.

"We forget that our body plan is a tube within a tube, so our lungs and our gut are open to the external environment," says Yehuda Ben-Shahar, an assistant professor of biology and medicine. "Although they're inside us, they're actually part of our external layer so they constantly suffer environmental insults. It makes sense that we evolved mechanisms to protect ourselves."

The receptors reside in pulmonary neuroendocrine cells that line the lungs' airways where they act as sentinels for inhaled chemicals that could be irritating or toxic but haven't triggered a response from the more selective odor receptors in the nose and nasal passages.

When these lung odor receptors do detect an offending chemical, they trigger a coughing response, which is fast and automatic. Nobody learns how to — or how not to — cough.

Ben-Shahar says the receptors might be a good therapeutic target for people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in which offending odors, such as perfumes or traffic exhaust, can cause the lungs to constrict and stopping functioning properly.

By developing a drug that blocks the receptors, he says, patients might continue to breathe easier no matter how insulting the surrounding environment might be.

BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Fingernails grow at a rate of 0.02 inches per week, four times faster than toenails. This translates to .0028 inches per day or 0.000119 inches per hour. The middle fingernail grows fastest; the thumb slowest.

NUMBER CRUNCHER

A Rubio's Original Fish Taco (149 grams) contains 270 calories, 117 from fat. It has 13 grams of total fat or 20 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet.

It also contains 35 milligrams of cholesterol (12 percent); 430 milligrams of sodium (18 percent); 30 grams of total carbohydrates (10 percent); 4 grams of dietary fiber; 4 grams of sugar; and 11 grams of protein.

PHOBIA OF THE WEEK

Siderodromophobia — fear of trains

NEVER SAY DIET

The Major League Eating speed-eating record for Armour Vienna sausage is 8.31 pounds in 10 minutes, held by Sonya Thomas. Note: A 4.75-ounce of Vienna sausages contains an estimated 505 calories. Thomas consumed more than 14,000 sausage-calories to set her record.

OBSERVATION

"The body is a sacred garment." —American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham (1894-1991)

EPITAPHS

"Reader if cash thou art/In want of any/Dig 4 feet deep/And thou wilt find a Penny." —John Penny's tombstone in a Wimborne, England, cemetery

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.