[laughs]

And, um, uh, I often thought about why is it that people don't know it, and I think the main answer I've come up with is the ca- because we can take it for granted because you can't turn it off.

You can close your eyes and imagine a world without sight, but I cannot turn off proprioception.

It's always there.

I know, um, where Ardem's limbs are at all times.

I, I know what space I occupy.

It's almost like at a basic level physical consciousness.

What is the purpose of science?

Are they all connected? I mean, how do we turn them all into one sensation?

So this was a rather surprise of our findings, the consequence of it.

Uh, I'll give you an example.

Um, olfaction, to smell, um, you know, Linda Buck and Richard Axel got the Nobel Prize before on finding the sensors for smell, and there are hundreds, almost a thousand receptors for smell, uh, because every volatile molecule has a shape, and then you have to evolve all these different receptors to be able to recognize the different, um......

these molecules and form an image of your brain of what that smells like based on some innate and experience, for example.

So people were shocked, including us, that PIEZO2, the single ion channel, the single sensor or receptor, is doing the vast majority of touch sensing, whether that's a gentle breeze on your hands, your hairs moving, um, a slight pressure on your arm.

And interestingly, biologists had previously shown that there are distinct touch-specialized neurons that are actually specialized to respond to very specific forms of mechanical stimuli.

What is the purpose of science?