Bleedin' obvious: Fizz!
While some scientists and institutions look for cures to the world’s major diseases and others clone cells to create identical offspring, yet others are swilling fizzy drinks around their mouths in the name of research. Once again, science got a lot more interesting when researchers at the University of California, Davis went out, drank and reported their findings in the literature.
Fizzy drinks taste good. There is something about the taste of the bubbles on your tongue, whether it is Champagne, cola or tonic - the little bubbles make every mouth feel clean and sparkly. But what are the reasons behind this sensation?
The research group gave patients fizzy drinks after treating one side of their tongue with a drug that reduces the sensitivity to carbon dioxide. Those taking part in the study claimed the untreated side of the mouth gave a stronger sensation and had a greater fizzy feeling than the treated side. The conclusions were that carbonated water excites the “lingual nociceptors” (some small nerves in the mouth) and this leads to that tingly feeling we get from those drinks. Cheers!
[Simons, C.T., et al. (1999). Neurobiological and psychophysical mechanisms underlying the oral sensation produced by carbonated water. Journal of Neuroscience 19, 8114-8121.]
Bubble-related facts:
A Sovereign is equivalent to 34 normal sized bottles of Champagne (25.5 litres) and is the largest bottle available. A Nebuchadnezzar is equivalent to 20 bottles, a Methuselah holds eight, a Jeroboam holds four, a Magnum holds two and a half-bottle is called a Split.
Alan McKay a New Zealander made a 105-foot-long bubble in 1996, using a huge bubble wand and some dishwashing liquid, glycerine and water.
In the UK, the average child consumes more than 200 litres of fizzy drinks per year.
The pressure in a bottle of Champagne is about equal to the tyre pressure of a double-decker bus.
The largest bubble-gum bubble ever blown was 58.4 cm in diameter. The champion chewer was Susan Montgomery Williams from California.
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