Do you know someone who brings their own hot chilli sauce to restaurants and friends’ houses? Are you that person? What makes that burning taste sensation hurt so good?
Our experiences of taste are so vivid and personal it can be hard to imagine how people can turn their nose up at your favourite comfort food. Research shows the explanation could be in your genes.
Stimuli such as light and shadow and our perception of the passage of time matter to architects interested in the branch of philosophy known as phenomenology.
The pickle-obsessed can now order a pickle pizza with a side of pickle potato chips, wash it down with a pickle beer and have pickle ice cream for dessert.
Barbecued food has unique and often delicious flavors. A food chemist explains how the process of grilling over an open flame can produce flavors unattainable through other cooking methods.
The effects of COVID and a new treatment for it are leaving a bad taste in the mouth for many. How do we detect what’s salty, sweet, bitter, sour or umami?
It’s intriguing how some people experience ASMR while others don’t - our latest research suggests that many ASMR responders are highly sensitive “orchids”.
If you ever feel like you can’t stop eating sugar, you are responding precisely as programmed by natural selection. What was once an evolutionary advantage has a different effect today.
Just because something is sweet doesn’t necessarily mean it is sugary. There are a number of molecules that taste sweet. To understand how and why takes a little bit of chemistry.
COVID-19 patients often lose their sense of smell and taste. This is rare for a viral infection. At-home smell tests could be used as a screening tool and help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Is it possible that people who recover from COVID-19 will be plagued with long term side effects from the infection? An infectious disease physician reviews the evidence so far.
Many respiratory viruses cause us to temporarily lose our sense of smell. But SARS-CoV-2 isn’t like those other viruses. Researchers are now exploring how it differs and whether patients recover.
All of the senses have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, not because the senses have changed, but because the world has, writes a sensory historian.