You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, you're Flavre friends, Aaron Scott here with the newest episode in our Taste Buddy

series.

It's all about the science behind the wonderful things that tickle our tongues.

So there is this story among scientists who studied taste.

Back in 1931, a chemist by the name of Arthur Foxx was working with a chemical called

TTC or phenyl thio carbamide, which is similar to toxic compounds found in some poisonous

plants.

So Arthur was pouring some of the powder into a bottle when some puffed up into the air.

And then his colleague, who was next to him, told him what's going on, it's very bitter.

But he did not feel that it's bitter at all.

He didn't feel the taste.

This is Masha Neve, a biochemistry professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

So he was very curious about how come the same compound taste bitter for his friend, but

it's tasteless for him.

And they started running this voting experiment.

And actually I think it's even an example of a very early ground science experiment.

This was of course an earlier era when it was totally cool for scientists to taste whatever

random chemical they were working with.

And to enlist their friends, family, and peers to do the same.

Fortunately, PTC turned out to be safe, at least in very small doses.

So these days Masha uses PTC on strips of paper to run a similar experiment with her

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