Science Pub is Back!
The Science of Flavor
November 12th at 6:00 PM
Old WorldDeli,341 SW 2nd St.,Corvallis
Another nerdy social event is planned, and we think it sounds pretty interesting. Science Pub, a program through OMSI offers educational programs in relaxed beer drinking environments in several cities in Oregon, Corvallis being one of them. This is an ongoing program with a website and calendar. We like to remind everyone of an option to turn a rainy and predictable night into something that is both fun and educational in a quirky way that'll keep you young at heart and a good conversationalist. November's program focus on our sense of taste. Here is how they describe it:
Have you ever reminisced about the taste of a meal you ate the night before? You might have had stinky Limburger cheese, or maybe a spicy curry that made your mouth burn. But, if we are talking about the smell of cheese and the irritation from curry, why do we call them taste?
The science of flavor is complicated. Some of the players include sweet and bitter tastes which are detected solely on the tongue. It also encompasses smell, such as the rich odor of vanilla, which is detected exclusively in the nose. And then there are tactile sensations, which include touch (the texture of crème brûlée), temperature (the warmth of soup) and irritation (the burn of hot peppers). Our understanding of how we perceive the flavor of foods and why we like some but not others is still in its infancy.
At the Nov. 12 Corvallis Science Pub, Juyun Lim, PhD, a sensory scientist and assistant professor in the Oregon State University Department of Food Science, will cover this fascinating topic. She conducts research on the oro-nasal sensory system as well as psychophysical methods to measure human sensory responses. She will discuss the roles of taste and smell in food perception and preference and how flavor can be created in the brain.
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