Q1: Sense of taste, gustatory perception

Last newsletter we discussed the Sensors of Smell, now were moving onto Taste. It is one of our core senses that hasn't made the jump to our digital devices - yet.

As you can see “Taste” is one of those senses that currently is not replicated in our smart phones. Why not? and will it ever?

What advantage would we gain if our devices were Supertasters?

The discovery of Umami!

We all know the four basic taste types, sweet, sour, salty and bitter, but there is a fifth, elusive taste - umami.

It's not often you get to discover a whole new taste flavour, then get to name it yourself, but that is exactly what Kikunae Ikeda did back in 01908.

You can listen to a brief history of the discovery of umami on NPR.

Products of the Future

We are always interested in the future, so we’ve profiled a few futuristic taste related products.

Penguins lost 3 of the 5 main taste types.

After some extensive genomic testing, scientists from the University of Michigan have determined that penguins have lost the ability to taste sweet, bitter and umami around 20 millions years ago. As it turns out, no bird species can taste sweet. With limited taste receptors and no teeth for chewing, a birds's life isn't a very tasty one.