Hey everybody, Maddie Sifaya here, and Emily Quang.

And today we have for you another Back to School episode.

We'll revisit something you may have learned in science class and dig in a little deeper.

Yes, many of you wrote in with Back to School ideas and we got this one from listener Michael

Salwasser, who wrote, my five-year-old granddaughter is learning about the five senses.

It's frustrating because I know there are a few more.

And Michael, you are right.

Yes, there are more than five.

This is Andre White, assistant professor at Mount Holyoke College where he teaches neurobiology.

I can understand Michael's frustration, but part of it has to do with the fact that those

five senses or sensory systems have discreet identifiable organs.

Totally, I remember in kindergarten we learned that eyes were for sight, ears were for hearing,

nose was for nose and mouth for taste and skin for touch.

Honestly, we can blame Aristotle for this oversimplification because he described the five senses

in day and in day and in 350 BC.

Come on Aristotle, okay, all right, so the number five really does have like ancient roots.

Yeah, roots were going to pry out of your head and replace with what modern science has

to say about sensory organs, sensing and yes, additional senses.

Today on the show, your senses and you see beautiful intricate system that carries information

from the outside world in and how we all may be living in our very own version of the

matrix.

This is shortwave, the Daily Science Podcast from NPR.

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