tastes

Buried Roman fermentation jars (dolia) from Villa Regina, Boscoreale. Credit: E. Dodd, courtesy of the Ministero della Cultura – Parco Archaeologico di Pompei It's no secret that the ancient Romans were lovers of wine. So gripped by the grape were they, that they even worshiped a god—Bacchus—devoted to wine and merriment. But, little is known about what their wine actually…

We all have different life experiences, and because of that, we all have a unique set of knowledge floating around in our brains. You might know off the top of your head that Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was the first woman in the world to be elected president of a nation, or you might be able to list the capital cities of every single country without having to pause and think. Some of us also have interesting information living rent free in our brains that might immediately lead to some follow-up questions. Reddit users have…

A groundbreaking study has revealed a significant connection between individuals’ music preferences and their moral values. Utilizing machine learning to analyze lyrics and audio features of favorite songs, the study found that music significantly influences moral sensibilities. Over 1,400 participants shared their favorite music for analysis, which showed that musical elements like pitch and timbre correlate with certain moral values. Researchers have found a strong connection between people’s music tastes and their…

The news: A new system for noise-canceling headphones lets users opt back in to certain sounds they’d like to hear, such as babies crying, birds tweeting, or alarms ringing.  How it works: The system, which is still in prototype, connects off-the-shelf headphones to a smartphone app. The microphones embedded in these headphones, which are used to cancel out noise, also detect the sounds in the world around the wearer. These sounds are then played back to a neural network, which has been trained to recognize 20 everyday…

Food and beverage companies seeking younger consumers eschew marketing the old for inventing the newTaco Bell says it is following the lead of its Gen Z customers and leaning more toward chicken, introducing items like 2023’s Cheesy Chicken Crispanada. Taco Bell Food and beverage companies seeking younger consumers eschew marketing the old for inventing the newTaco Bell says it is following the lead of its Gen Z customers and leaning more toward chicken, introducing items like 2023’s Cheesy Chicken Crispanada. Taco…

Coca-Cola has come up with a way for you to level up in real life. In a collaboration with Riot Games and in celebration of League of Legends, the two companies have developed a soft drink that they claim is what experience points taste like.(Author’s note: there are many different words people across the world use for soft drinks. As an American, specifically a Midwestern American, I will henceforth use what I know as the word’s one true morphology: pop.)Coke is calling the drink Ultimate Zero Sugar and, starting June…

We started with a plant-based burger from Impossible Foods. Founded in 2011, the company makes meat alternatives from plants. The special ingredient is heme protein, which is cranked out by genetically engineered microbes and sprinkled in for that meaty flavor. I took a small bite of the Impossible burger, and if you ask me, the taste was a pretty good approximation of the real thing, though the texture was a bit looser and softer than beef. (If you’re based in the US, you may have tried this one already yourself. In…

London, TuesdayKing Kong, which will start an exclusive season at the Coliseum on Monday, was press-shown to-day. It is based on the last story Edgar Wallace wrote for the screen. The idea is good, and the picture begins well with an explorer about to set out on a film expedition to an unknown island. It is not on the map, and natives dwell on it in worshipping dread of a giant ape which lives behind a wall built in “time immemorial.” This is to be the subject of the producers’ picture, but when the party reach the island…

If your kids aren't keen on a particular dish, you might want to try changing the look of the crockery it's served in. A new study has revealed how the color of a bowl can impact the taste of the food it holds.The experiment involved 47 volunteers split into two groups based on their responses to a food-pickiness questionnaire. Although there is no set way to define a picky eater, the category could arguably include people who have a restricted diet, who have strong dislikes for certain foods, who require food to be…

Do people eating lots of sugar become desensitized to sweetness? Scientists at the University of Michigan (U-M) have found evidence that this might be the case, with a new study in rats finding that those on a high-sugar diet had as much as a 50% reduction in responsiveness to sweet flavors.It seems like a logical and anecdotal assumption to make that long-term exposure to a sensation would dull the response to it, but whether it has any scientific basis remained to be seen. Previous studies had found evidence in fruit…