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The Sense of Taste

Of genes, molecules and the fascinating biology of one of the most fundamental senses

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Petra Schling

    1. Biochemie-Zentrum, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

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  • Overview of the individual flavors
  • Discusses the importance of taste for survival
  • Latest findings on the importance of taste receptors outside the mouth

Part of the book series: essentials (ESSENT)

Part of the book sub series: Springer essentials (SE)

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Table of contents (3 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Taste From a Biological Perspective

    • Petra Schling
    Pages 1-5

  3. Flavors

    • Petra Schling
    Pages 7-33

  4. Tasting in Unusual Places

    • Petra Schling
    Pages 35-44

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 45-51
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Keywords

About this book

In this essential, Petra Schling gives an overview of the current state of research on the topic of taste. She regards taste as a sensory perception that allows us to distinguish essential food components from toxins. What we eat depends not insignificantly on how we like it. But how do we actually taste - and what do we taste? As omnivores, we humans have a relatively wide range of taste receptors, not only in our mouths, which provide us with important information about our food. Outside the mouth, taste receptors serve our innate immune system to "taste" bacteria, worms and other intruders. We can and should rely on this. Our sense of taste warns us of toxins and unwanted co-inhabitants and can only be deceived to a very limited extent by sweeteners, bitter blockers or similar tricks.

This Springer essential is a translation of the original German 1st edition essentials,Der Geschmack by Petra Schling, published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2021.The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.




Authors and Affiliations

  • Biochemie-Zentrum, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Petra Schling

About the author

Dr. Petra Schling is a research assistant at the Biochemistry Center of Heidelberg University.   

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Sense of Taste

  • Book Subtitle: Of genes, molecules and the fascinating biology of one of the most fundamental senses

  • Authors: Petra Schling

  • Series Title: essentials

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-32233-5

  • Publisher: Springer Wiesbaden

  • eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-658-32232-8Published: 29 August 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-658-32233-5Published: 28 August 2021

  • Series ISSN: 2197-6708

  • Series E-ISSN: 2197-6716

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 51

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations, 5 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Physiology, Zoology, Neurosciences, Chemistry/Food Science, general, Life Sciences, general

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