In two new studies, researchers used genetic techniques to upend a long-standing assumption that the nerve cells with scent detectors were randomly arranged. They don’t know whether the same spatial organization is found in human noses Microscope image of a cross-section of a mouse nose. The animal was genetically altered so that its nerve cells used for smell glow green. Some dying nerve cells appear red. Datta Lab How, exactly, the nose’s odor detectors are arranged has long remained a mystery. Other sensory organs have been charted within the past century, and researchers now know that cells responsible for touch, sight and sound are organized in specific spatial patterns. For instance, hearing a certain frequency triggers precise cells in the inner ear , which then send signals to the brain. But the nose, scientists thought, was different: It was simply arranged in broad zones.…