The Science of Everyday Life

If you pause for a moment and scratch the surface, though, the gleam of fascinating science shines through.

Saccharina latissima, or sugar kelp as it is commonly known.

What these sugar-free sugar substitutes have in common is that they all bear some structural resemblance to sucrose itself. It therefore comes as no surprise that our taste buds detect them as sweet, as they all possess the key to the sweetness lock.

The sweetest chemical so far discovered goes by the name of lugduname and ranks about 250,000 times sweeter than sucrose

many cases, once you get past the initial understanding, you find yourself abruptly at the scientific coalface, where the ultimate answer is that we just don’t know the answer – so far

tongue-twisting and tongue-numbing

causes the sensation of heat

scratch the surface,

hand-held gizmos we take for granted.

doesn’t bear any structural resemblance