Nobel Conference Blog

Category: Taste

  • Would you like water with your wine?

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    heldke

    Guest blogger, Associate Professor of Classics  Matt Panciera, writes: The food science writer Harold McGee recently wrote on the benefits of adding water to various beverages. He found that gin, coffee, and wine all improved their aroma and taste when diluted with water.(See his “Curious Cook” piece on the subject in the New York Times.)…

  • Mind to taste

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    kchamber

    At the Association for Psychological Science 22nd Annual Convention, Linda Bartoshuk was interviewed by Carol Tavris.  They covered a wide-range of topics, including how she chose her career, how she discovered supertasters, and the connection between taste perception and health.  Watch the complete interview or read the summary on the APS website. In addition, during the…

  • That’s disgusting!…and immoral?

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    heldke

    Would you eat a cockroach? If you find the very idea disgusting, would you be surprised to learn that some researchers believe that your disgust–a so-called “moral emotion”–is one of the drivers of humans’ higher moral judgments? Psychologists and philosophers at a recent conference on disgust discussed (heh heh) this issue in considerable detail. Some…

  • Are YOU a supertaster?

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    heldke

    Several years ago, when I learned about  “supertasters,” the people Linda Bartoshuk discovered who have extraordinary numbers of taste buds, my first thought was “oh, please, let me be a supertaster!” As luck would have it, I’m not in that superminority. But now I know how lucky I am.  Supertasting is not superfun. Imagine that…

  • How do you feel about cake?

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    heldke

    If you see a piece of cake, or hear someone say the word “cake,” do you find yourself, well, wanting cake–even if you just got up from a huge meal? Scientists at two conferences this week have been investigating the differences between “hedonic” and “homeostatic” eaters–that is, between eaters for whom the siren song of…

  • Dr. Linda Bartoshuk profiled in Science

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    mferrag

    The June 18 issue of Science contains a biographical profile featuring Dr Linda Bartoshuk who will speak at Nobel 2010, Making Food Good.  The article highlights her pathway to becoming a psychophysicist, the discovery of “supertasters”, and recent efforts to reconfigure the subjective scale employed to assess such attributes as pain and taste. Science article…

  • Linda Bartoshuk: Tomato Flavor Saver

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    heldke

    A story on the May 28 edition of Morning Edition featured an interview with Linda Bartoshuk, the University of Florida psychologist who will appear as part of Nobel 2010, “Making Food Good.” Bartoshuk, well known for her discovery of “super tasters” is currently working with scientists at the University to develop tomatoes that have both…