ON SAMPLE-TASTING

Phenylthiocarbamide tasting in a sample of twins.

1. Twenty-eight pairs of monozygotic and eighteen pairs of dizygotic twins were tested for their ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (P.T.C.) by the method of Harris & Kalmus (1949). 2. Much greater variance in threshold levels was detected within the DZ than within the MZ pairs and this confirms the genetic origin of most variation in ability to taste this substance. 3. Variance in threshold ...

Apple Tasting

We use two transformations to relate the apple tasting model to an enhanced standard model where false acceptances are counted separately from false rejections. We apply our results to obtain a good generalpurpose apple tasting algorithm as well as nearly optimal apple tasting algorithms for a variety of standard classes, such as conjunctions and disjunctions of n boolean variables. We also pre...

On the Limitations of Blind Tasting

Blind tasting — tasting without knowing the wine’s producer, origin, or other details obtainable from the wine’s label— has become something of a fetish in the wine world. We are told, repeatedly and insistently, that blind tasting is the best, most neutral, least biased, and most honest evaluative procedure, and one that should be employed to the exclusion of non-blind/sighted tasting (which, ...

Tasting the Bitter Sunlight

Have you ever had that gut reaction to your surroundings, some physical sensation that something isn’t quite right? Maybe a squirmy, uneasy feeling in your stomach or an acrid taste on your tongue that makes you want to leave the scene? When the nematode C. elegans encounters an offensive sensation—whether a pungent, potentially dangerous odor (such as those associated with fungal parasites), e...

Tea Tasting and Pascal Triangles