They didn't mention looking for other people with the same ability. Maybe other or many or most people can do it, if they know what to look for. If I smell something bad, I never consider that it might be a disease.
If a human can do it, a dog can too, since their noses are so much more sensitive than any human's. I can imagine dogs reliably sniffing out many diseases, then this becoming a standard lab assay, or at least a component thereof.
It seems safe to assume she has an especially good nose -- I figure she's the olfactory version of a tetrachromat[1] or supertaster[2]. She also had a relatively rare coincidence where she married somebody before his Parkinson's presented, and she witnessed its progression. I would assume that she isn't globally unique in her ability, but finding others with it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: how do you efficiently screen for this without knowing the precise compounds are to be targeted?
> It seems safe to assume she has an especially good nose
I wouldn't assume anything. And it might not be related to sensitivity in general, but sensitivity to a particular chemical. (Also, is the perception of smell tied only to sensory aparatus in the nose?)
> finding others with it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: how do you efficiently screen for this without knowing the precise compounds are to be targeted?
Expose them to people with Parkinson's; based on her experience, it seems like a quick test. In her case, they tested it with t-shirts worn by people with Parkinson's.
> Expose them to people with Parkinson's; based on her experience, it seems like a quick test. In her case, they tested it with t-shirts worn by people with Parkinson's.
I guess, a nice impact of this story is that people with Parkinson's are gonna see it and ask their friends, "do I have a smell?" If she's not rare, we'll find out.