Can You Actually Taste Water?

Welcome to Buzzed io9 , an periodic newspaper column play up experiments of doubtful scientific merit that readers can direct when entirely lay waste to . Today ’s question : can humans taste pee ? Flies can . Are you going to have a Drosophila show you up ?

It ’s undecipherable whether human race can actually taste water . Yes , we can try the minerals and various impurities in our tap water . We can find the urine slop around in our mouths . But can we really taste H20 in all of its slopped lusciousness ? If we ca n’t , then it ’s another win for our six - legged nemesis , the fear insects . Sure , insect may have a not bad biomass than humankind and possess all sorts of superbly stabby appendages , but we Homo sapiens have the scientific method . And hooch !

According to cellphone biologist Peter Cameron of UC Berkeley , “ louse have a unique exercise set of neurons , include water sensing ones , but the real water taste sense organ was [ until lately ] unsung . ” In a late study Cameron issue in Nature – “ The molecular cornerstone for piss taste in Drosophila ” – Cameron and his squad isolated a protein , PPK28 , that permit flies to taste water supply . PPK28 may not be the only mechanism that permit flies to smack water , but Cameron remark that “ evidence powerfully suggest that PPK28 alone attend as the water sensor ; it does n’t seem to sense anything else . ”

Okay , so those stupefied flies can taste water supply . But can humans ? Hopefully Cameron ’s work will jumpstart awesomely little research concerning the human electrical capacity to smack water . In the lag , what are you locomote to do for science ? You ’re go to have a WATER TASTING PARTY .

Step 1 . ) ask over a dozen of your close Quaker over .

Step 2 . ) Rent Waterworld . Or Ice Pirates . Or some other film in which hydro is a precious trade good .

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stone’s throw 3 . ) Get your pals three canvas to the wind . We ’ll let you make up one’s mind how .

footmark 4 . ) help half of your friendsdistilled waterand half of your friends pink . Convince your friend that you distill their water the same way Kevin Costner did in Waterworld . This will make them ornery and excited for science .

gradation 5 . ) Allow your glassy - eyed colleagues to argue amongst themselves whether or not humans can savor piddle . Some folks may fence that “ the taste ” of water is due to impurities or the absence seizure therefrom . Some kinsfolk will lay claim that they can smack water because of some ranking gustatory fostering . Some common people will begin crying about their spouses or lack thereof . Stanch that quick by blastingTLC ’s “ Waterfalls”whenever the conversation degenerate . They must learn Pavlovianly .

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footprint 6 . ) Time to up the ante . Tell your friends whoever say his or her case the garish wins the scientific method acting .

Step 7 . ) Explain to the police berth that you are conducting a scientific discipline experiment . He will probably write you a ticket . Hey , it could be worse . Galileo was placed under house arrest .

[ NatureviaArs Technica ]

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