Mice with inflamed nasal tissue may be unable to tell if something smells bad or good, but their sensory deficit is nothing to turn up a nose at That is because, their developers say, the mice's reversible loss of one of their key senses, which is essential to tasting food or sensing danger from foul odors, sets them apart from all other mice and binds them to an estimated 31 million Americans living with chronic sinusitis, a persistent inflammation of the tissue that lines the nasal and sinus cavities