This Is What Protons Taste Like

YouTuber Steve Mould explains how our taste buds work and how we all actually tasted protons before.
Loukia Papadopoulos

YouTuber Steve Mould always has a clever way to grab our attention and in this latest video, and he has done it again. In the clip, Mould challenges us to think about taste in a whole new way.

It turns out that our five tastes (sweet, salty, savory, sour, and bitter) are chemical reactions designed to help us survive. For instance, sweetness is our sugar detecting mechanism: in other words our energy-molecule detecting mechanism.

But what does all that have to do with what protons taste like? That's where it gets really interesting. It all has to do with how your body manages the taste of sourness.

Something is acidic if it has a high concentration of hydrogen ions. So the gustatory cells in charge of your ability to detect sour things must be able to detect hydrogen ions and indeed they can. However, since positive hydrogen ions are merely protons, when you taste something sour, you are actually tasting protons. Pretty cool!

If this little tidbit of information has piqued your curiosity, watch the rest of the video to find out how all of our taste buds work and hear more of Mould's views on what all our senses are.

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