Transcript Smell & Taste

Flavor Detective
What Happened?
Adapted from Shirley Wilborne 2002
Smell & Taste
Tongue – only sense 5 tastes –
• Saltiness
• Sweetness
• Sourness
• Bitterness
• Meatiness (umami)
Nasal Passages
Can respond to 1000s of different molecules
How we sense taste…
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Tongue tastes
Nose smells
Texture
Temperature
Taste is Mostly Smell
• Tongue can’t tell the difference between
orange and lime.
• Nose detects difference
• With a cold – onions and apples taste the
same
So… why were you able to taste
the difference between flavors
• May inhale as we swallow, allowing the
nose to smell the flavor.
Great Activity for learning how
to design experiments..
• Selected jelly beans from the cup without
the subject knowing which ones
• No feedback increases success of
experiment – “blind test”
• In drug testing – double blind – the person
giving the meds doesn’t know what they’re
giving
Control Group
• The group of trials need for comparison
• No eyes, using nose before the study to
compare results with the experimental
group. Scientists don’t assume to know
what “normal” is. They collect data to be
sure.