What Is Taste?

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Scientists are trying to build the case of whether calcium, starch and metallic labs around the world should be considered tastes. In 20 years from now, it will probably have come to some kind of a consensus on it, but we're not there yet. Think of it like your pancreuss constantly tasting your blood to see how much insolenc to produce. These taste receptors are tools.

For thousands of years, there have been four basic tastes recognized across cultures. But thanks to Kumiko Ninomiya (a.k.a. the Umami Mama), scientists finally accepted a fifth. So could there be even more?

This is the fourth episode of our six-part series, Making Sense.

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