How lobsters use their 12 ‘noses’ to woo mates, find food and win fights

Many humans might consider smell to be a less than essential sense. To the lobster, though, interpreting chemicals using its 12 ‘noses’ is the difference between meeting a compatible mate and never reproducing, finding a meal and going hungry, and winning or losing a fight with a rival. In short, smelling is a matter of life and death in the lobster’s dim, underwater realm. A collaboration between the director Flora Lichtman and the California Academy of Sciences’ digital publication bioGraphic, The Lobster and its Amazing Noses investigates the incredible, unusual way in which lobsters sniff their way through life.