Flavor Detective

1
Flavor Detective

• What Happened?

Adapted from Shirley Wilborne 2002
2
Smell Taste

• Tongue only sense 5 tastes
• Saltiness
• Sweetness
• Sourness
• Bitterness
• Meatiness (umami)

3
Nasal Passages

• Can respond to 1000s of different molecules

4
How we sense taste

• Tongue tastes
• Nose smells
• Texture
• Temperature

5
Taste is Mostly Smell

• Tongue cant tell the difference between orange
  and lime.
• Nose detects difference
• With a cold onions and apples taste the same

6
So why were you able to taste the difference
between flavors

• May inhale as we swallow, allowing the nose to
  smell the flavor.

7
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 doesnt know what theyre giving

8
Control Group

• The group of trials need for comparison
• No eyes, using nose before the study to compare
  results with the experimental group. Scientists
  dont assume to know what normal is. They
  collect data to be sure.