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Margot Wilhelm's avatar

This is so awesome! We need to bring back dumb studies especially with kids! In my own little life I was previously paid to be a "Scientist" and also I have people in my family who are antivaxers who decided I was not to be trusted because I was a scientist. (Or maybe it was because I studied plants and microbes?)

I wish, in our current political landscape, scientists weren't considered elitist and therefore capitalists and untrustworthy (although some of them are). I've spent a lot of time trying to tell people that "science" is a basic trait of being human. What happens when I try adding balsamic vinegar to the potatoes? (Blech) Which toys does the dog like best? (the plushy squeaky ones that are fun to destroy) As humans we are experimenting every day in little ways we don't even notice. I believe it's part of our creativity.

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Joshua Rasband's avatar

There's a good neuroscientific explanation for why people wouldn't want to eat straight salt. At low concentrations of salt, salty taste receptors are activated, but at high salt concentrations, bitter and sour taste receptors are also activated. (See https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11905 for some of the original research.) As far as I know, there's not a similar aversive effect for high concentrations of sugar.

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