Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

i need answers on the following questions for experiment:

1. How do tastebuds ware out?

2. Can tastebuds tranplanted?

3. What is the taste of the tastebud?

Hi,

Apparently you do become less sensitive to salty tastes with age. I found some websites that suggest that women start losing taste at 40 to 50, and men between 50 and 60, though I do not know how reliable this information is.

http://www.afic.org/Taste%20Matters.htm

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 003050.htm

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 004013.htm

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/ma ... .Ns.r.html


These papers may have useful quantitative references that may be useful to you:

http://hubel.sfasu.edu/courseinfo/SL99/effectage.html

http://crobm.iadrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/3/4/371

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/b ... 3/art00007

A study of marmoset taste buds:

http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/co ... ull/26/1/1

Hope this helps start your research, though it does not answer all your questions. Best of luck on your project!

Barrett Tomlinson