Month: September 2022

THE SUBJUNCTIVE TENSE. “I believe that "almost" situations and unconsciously manufactured subjunctives represent some of the richest potential sources of insight into how human beings organize and categorize their perceptions of the world.” (Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter). https://lnkd.in/dmfn9qW View in LinkedIn

This image is an expression of trust. Here in the old part of Girona, the owner has left his brolly outside on a busy street. View in LinkedIn

RECEPTOR EFFECT. “This combined approach consistently leads to the conclusion that the sweet taste of pure D2O is a real effect for human subjects due to activation of the TAS1R2/TAS1R3 sweet taste receptor. While present simulations show, in accord with previous experiments, that proteins are systematically slightly more rigid and compact in D2O than in H2O, the specific molecular mechanism of the heavy water effect on the TAS1R2/TAS1R3 receptor remains to be established.” https://lnkd.in/dzPDm5w View in LinkedIn

HUMAN TRIAL. “A human sensory panel was employed to study the D2O taste. Triangle tests based on two samples of H2O and one sample of D2O (or vice versa), with random success rate of one-third, were presented to the panelists in a randomized order. Panelists were asked to pick the odd sample out—to smell only, to taste only (with a nose clips), or to taste with open nose.” https://lnkd.in/dzPDm5w View in LinkedIn

CLEAR RESULT. “Our results show that humans perceive D2O as being clearly distinguishable from H2O based on its taste: In open nose taste test 22 out of 28 participants identified the odd sample correctly (p = 0.001), and in taste only test 14 out of 26 identified the odd sample correctly (p = 0.03). However, in smell-only triangle test, only 9 out of 25 panelists chose the odd sample correctly (p > 0.05). Data are summarized in Figure S3 in SI.” https://lnkd.in/dzPDm5w View in LinkedIn

DOSE-DEPENDENT. “Next, the perceived sweetness of D2O in increasing proportion to H2O was reported using a 9-point scale, labeled also with verbal descriptions of perceived intensity (1 = no sensation, 3 = slight, 5 = moderate, 7 = very much, 9 = extreme sensation). Sweetness was shown to increase in a D2O-dose-dependent manner, reaching average 3.3 ± 0.4 sweetness (“slight” sweetness) (Fig. 2a).” https://lnkd.in/dzPDm5w View in LinkedIn

OTHER SWEETENERS. “The perceived sweetness of low concentrations of caloric D-glucose (Fig. 2b), sucrose (Fig. 2c), and an artificial sweetener cyclamate (Fig. 2d) was tested when dissolved in H2O or in D2O, in order to check whether the slight sweetness of D2O adds on top of slight sweetness of known sweeteners. As expected, D-glucose was perceived as less sweet compared to sucrose at the same concentration (Fig. 2b and c). D2O added to the perceived sweetness of all tested concentrations of D-glucose and cyclamate (see Figure S4 in the SI for cyclamate results excluding two outliers).” https://lnkd.in/dzPDm5w View in LinkedIn