At the Monell Chemical Senses Center’s “Celebration of Science”, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, on Thursday, November 12, 2025, Marc Abrahams will do an evening talk about improbable research involving taste and smell. The entire day is a celebration of research on those subjects, and especially a celebration of research done by Robert Margolskee and colleagues over […]
Some food is flavorful even in its name. Such is the case with the plant called Monstera deliciosa. Its tastiness is no longer the mystery that some people feared it to be. This study explores what makes that taste tasty: “Volatile flavor constituents of Monstera deliciosa,” Terry L. Peppard, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them: Legless on the shore — Extremities can bring confusion even to trained experts. Joanna Glengarry and Melanie Archer at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Australia warn that forensic pathologists and anthropologists “should be prepared to […]
Electrified chopsticks, soup bowls, and other eating implements can make bland food taste much saltier — much tastier. The technology was honored with the 2023 Ig Nobel Nutrition Prize. The prize, awarded to Homei Miyashita and Hiromi Nakamura, for their experiments to determine how electrified chopsticks and drinking straws can change the taste of food. […]