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Humans have the ability to taste sweet, salty, savory, sour, and umami (savory). The capability to taste in all five of these areas is a gift that not all creatures have, and without the ability to taste, eating would be a lot less enjoyable and almost become more of a chore! As we get older, do our taste buds grow and mature in a way that's similar to our physical bodies? Do they become stronger? I hypothesized that the older a person is, the easier it is for them to trace small amounts of these "taste categories", while a younger person would have a more difficult time.

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To test my hypothesis, I created a 10% sugar solution and did this by dissolving 2 ½ teaspoons of sugar into 6 tablespoons of water and putting that in a labeled cup. Then, I poured 2 tablespoons of this solution into a new cup and added another 6 tablespoons of water to create a 1% solution. I repeated this process two more times, continuing to take 2 tablespoons of the previous solution and add it to a separate 6 tablespoons of water until I had a 0.1% and 0.001% solution of sugar water. I repeated these steps again separately, once with 1 ¾ teaspoon of salt and once with 2 teaspoons of vinegar to test the threshold of salty and sour.
Once all four cups of the three solutions were ready, a 12-year-old child tested her taste threshold by rinsing her mouth, patting her tongue dry, and swiping a cotton swab with the 10% sugar solution on it across her tongue. Then rated how strongly she could taste the sweetness on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the lowest level and 10 the highest. She rinsed and tried the 1% sugar solution next. After this, she tried both the 0.1% and the 0.01% solution, analyzing the strength of the taste. Once finished, she moved on and repeated these steps with the salty and sour solutions. This test was repeated with other ages ranging from 14 to 71, with all the measurements and ingredients remaining the same. Each person rated how strong the taste of each solution was on a scale of 1-10. Their results and opinions were compared afterward.

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When reviewing the results of the experiment, I realized that the outcome was the opposite of what I predicted! Though the everyone's results for the smallest solution (0.01%) were all very close, always rated 1 or 2, the higher solutions had a wide range of unexpected results. Instead of the older people being able to easily detect the low levels in the solutions, they actually struggled to pinpoint the flavors.

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x axis- age, y axis- taste strength of the 10% vinegar solution 

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Here is a graph showing the results from the 10% vinegar solution. The labels on the y-axis have been cut off, but they are numbered 0-10. The highest mark was a 9 from the 11-year-old, while the lowest was a 2 from the 71-year-old. The oldest people ended up having the lowest number despite the higher amount of vinegar, and they could barely detect the sour flavor.
(Easley, 2022)

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x axis- age, y axis- taste strength of the 10% salt solution

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These are the results of the 10% salt solution. Ages 11, 12 and 38 could detect the salt very well and rated the strength a 10, while ages 68 and 71 rated the strength a 4. Again, the older ages had trouble detecting the taste even though it was the strongest solution of salt.
(Easley, 2022)

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x axis- age, y axis- taste strength of the 10% sugar solution 

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This graph displays the results of the 10% sugar solution. The youngest two kids could taste it very well and rated it 10 and 7, but the results dopped to a 5 for ages 14 and 38. Ratings decreased again for ages 41, 63, and 67, and they all rated the strength a 3. The oldest two rated the solutions strength a 2. This 10% solution dropped to lower ratings faster than the vinegar and salt did, but the pattern is still the same. The younger people could taste the sugar better, while the older people could barely detect it.
(Easley, 2022)

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In conclusion, taste buds do not become stronger with age, and therefore my hypothesis is rejected. Instead, they become weaker and are not able to detect flavors nearly as well. On the other hand, younger people are able to detect flavors quicker and easier. As a person gets older, taste buds are also not replaced as much. According to the article "Taste Buds Function & Location | How Many Taste Buds Do Humans Have?" the text says, "Each taste bud in the human mouth gets replaced about every two weeks. However, as a person ages, some of the cells do not get replaced; therefore, an older adult may only have 5,000 working taste buds. (Hausman, 2022)"  God created our bodies to slow down with older age, and our tasting ability is no exception! These results could be applied to everyday life because you may notice the older you get, the more seasoning or flavor you want on your food. With these results, you can infer that the reason for this is because you do not have as many taste buds as you used to, nor are they as strong as they used to be. One error that could have affected the experiment and caused an error could be if someone was sick or beginning to get sick. Since some symptoms like congestion can affect the ability to taste, results could have been affected.

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Hausman, T. (2022). Taste Buds Function & Location | How Many Taste Buds Do Humans Have? Study.com. https://study.com/academy/lesson/taste-buds-function-location-humans.html

Easley, C. (2022). Bar graphs