Adventures in Science and Technology

[Biology]

This test will allow you to discover things you likely never knew about your tongue! On the surface of your tongue, there are hundreds of tiny little bumps called taste buds (in fact, there are over 900!!). These little bumps are what let your brain know what flavour you are tasting. You know that you have tons of taste buds (approx. 900) but do you think that they can taste the same things? By the end of the test, you will have mapped out the taste zones (sweet, sour, bitter, salty) on your tongue.

Small amounts of

baking soda
lemon juice
salt
sugar

and

4 small straws
4 plastic cups
water

Put some of each flavour in a cup. For the sugar, salt, and baking soda you will need to add some water to make a liquid.
Stick your tongue out.
Have a friend drop one flavour on your tongue, and write down how it tastes.
Now have the same person drop the same taste on a different part of your tongue. Can you still taste it?
Draw a map of your tongue and mark where on your tongue you can taste this flavour.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all the different flavours, until you have mapped your entire tongue.

There are 4 different regions on your tongue, and each can only taste a certain flavour (salty, bitter, sweet, sour).

Produced by Galactics.
Comments: galactics@spacesim.org.
Last updated on 14 August 1998.