Tongue

Tongue

Have you ever heard of the word called papillae? In this explanation, I will be telling you lots of new words that you probably haven’t heard before and how we can smell/taste food.  

Here is a list of the different parts of your tongue. First is your papillae. Papillae are these small red dots on top of your tongue and around the outside of your papillae are tiny bits of hair called microvilli which helps you taste food. Next is your smell molecules. Smell molecules/odours are particles that helps you to smell food. Then, there is your olfactory receptors. Olfactory receptors are these things on top of your nose that sends a warning to you if you are tasting something that is expired or old.

Have you ever had that feeling when you just can’t smell or taste anything when you have a cold? Well this is because all the snot blocks your nose and stops the smell molecules from travelling all the way to your olfactory receptors.

Today, I have learnt lots of different facts about the tongue. About how we can smell/taste food and why we can never smell any food that we eat when we have a cold. I think that this system is very interesting and also fascinating.