We’ve all heard of the five tastes our tongues can detect — sweet, sour, bitter, savory-umami and salty. But the real number is actually six, because we have two separate salt-taste systems. One of ...

Have you ever wondered why only hummingbirds sip nectar from feeders? Unlike sparrows, finches and most other birds, hummingbirds can taste sweetness because they carry the genetic instructions ...

Researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have revealed the detailed structure of the bitter taste receptor, a protein called TAS2R14, and have shown ...

Scientists have identified a gene that controls the development of taste buds. The gene, SOX2, stimulates stem cells on the surface of the embryonic tongue and in the back of the mouth to transform ...

In the early 1900s, Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda suggested that umami was a basic taste, like bitter, salty, sour, or sweet. It took about eight decades for the scientific community to officially ...

Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda first proposed umami as a basic taste — in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter — in the early 1900s. About eight decades later, the scientific community ...

Everyone’s taste buds are different. That’s why some people can swallow the spiciest peppers while others have no fondness for sweet desserts (gasp!). Now a recent study suggests that taste-bud ...