Munching plants and learning science and bitching about vocab, oh my
I've been eating from plants that I find outside, some of them taste very bitter and some not nearly so bitter. I was trying to find out why...I think basically bitterness corresponds to toxicity, so if you want to avoid eating poisonous plants but you still want to go around carefree and try things without consulting a reference guide, that might be a good rule of thumb (but this is not advice for you to do so).
I found the following article while questing about--check it out. Says some sorta interesting things about the science of taste, as well as mentioning the toxicity thing I just talked about. But what I wanted to point out was something about the way we often use language when we are studying science. The figure on the left explains the parts within parts within parts, the grand mechanism that allows you to taste:
"The tongue is covered with bumps called papillae." So far so good. They always have to add some weird vocab though, don't they?
"Each papilla contains multiple taste buds." Fine.
"Taste buds are filled with gustatory cells." This is where I complain.
No one uses the word "gustatory". Never. But it means "taste". So the taste buds have "gustatory cells". Taste cells, cells that taste. But if kids study this in school they'll learn the big word "gustatory", along with the big word "papillae", instead of learning the simple, helpful concept that "Even though we all know we have taste buds that let us taste, it's really a hierarchy of big parts made of smaller parts made of smaller parts. There are bumps on your tongue--taste bumps. They have little budding things on them--taste buds. These are filled with cells that do the tasting--taste cells. So there's a hierarchical organization that has naturally grown along with the rest of you, in order that you may taste your food."
I found the following article while questing about--check it out. Says some sorta interesting things about the science of taste, as well as mentioning the toxicity thing I just talked about. But what I wanted to point out was something about the way we often use language when we are studying science. The figure on the left explains the parts within parts within parts, the grand mechanism that allows you to taste:
"The tongue is covered with bumps called papillae." So far so good. They always have to add some weird vocab though, don't they?
"Each papilla contains multiple taste buds." Fine.
"Taste buds are filled with gustatory cells." This is where I complain.
No one uses the word "gustatory". Never. But it means "taste". So the taste buds have "gustatory cells". Taste cells, cells that taste. But if kids study this in school they'll learn the big word "gustatory", along with the big word "papillae", instead of learning the simple, helpful concept that "Even though we all know we have taste buds that let us taste, it's really a hierarchy of big parts made of smaller parts made of smaller parts. There are bumps on your tongue--taste bumps. They have little budding things on them--taste buds. These are filled with cells that do the tasting--taste cells. So there's a hierarchical organization that has naturally grown along with the rest of you, in order that you may taste your food."
posted by Resonance at
10:33 AM
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