The above list of mumbo-jumbo looks like something that can only be defined to be random...BUT I'm here to enlighten you and tell you that it most definitely is NOT random.
So have you ever sipped a soda and felt like you "tasted the fizz?"
I have.
Have you ever wondered why?
If you did...here's the answer:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113831763&ft=1&f=1001
In short here's the story.
So we're studying the senses in my neuroscience class and right now we're discussing the sense of taste. So I read a Nature paper back from 2006 about a receptor called PKD2L1 that detects sour tastes. Then today I read the link above and realized that the same PKD2L1 receptor that detects sourness also detects fizz. Apparently the fizz, composed of CO2, reacts with carbonic anhydrase 4 (an enzyme that coats the surface of PKD2L1) generating acidity which is then detected/tasted by the PKD2L1 and registered as a taste!
Cool huh?
I thought so.
Well I have a multivariable calc midterm next Monday and I have a stack of homework to finish so I'll round up this blog now.
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