4 ms·
Is this true or just a pun? Like your acid taste buds are literally sensitive enough to register a single H+ binding?
by metacritic12 4y ago
Is this true or just a pun? Like your acid taste buds are literally sensitive enough to register a single H+ binding?
- Eddy_Viscosity2 4y agoIt is true you can taste protons. Whether you can taste a single one, I'm not sure, nor even how to test it. Fun video by Steve Mould on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSYE1T5d9jc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSYE1T5d9jc
- tmearnest 4y agoI’m convinced you cannot taste single protons. Water self ionizes, so there will always be acidic species (H+, H3O+, …) way way above the concentration of single molecules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-ionization_of_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-ionization_of_water
- amelius 4y agoMaybe the OH- parts neutralize the H+ sensation?
- elil17 4y agoOur detection threshold for citric acid is like 0.04 mM (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629876/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629876/), or almost 2.3*10^17 protons per 10 mL sample used in the study I linked to. Obviously you're not going to be able to taste a single proton in your mouth. But maybe only a very small fraction of those protons are actually interacting with the receptors. Figuring out the threshold on the cellular level would be complex because it would depend on the rate of diffusion of H+ through the relevant channels and the number of relevant channels.