Umami--have you heard of it? According to my Yahoo! newsfeed, umami--Japanese for "savory" or "meaty"--is the fifth taste. You know how you were always told that there are 4 tastes--sweet, salty, bitter, sour? Well, now there's a fifth. And by the way, if you haven't heard by now, there are 8, not 9, planets. You know how you were always told that your genes came solely from your two parents? Well, that's been debunked as well.
Just kidding. But I can just imagine the headlines, "Recent scientific studies suggest that offspring receive their genetic makeup from not two, but three, DNA contributors." I know this sounds ludicrous, but I feel like every time science teachers drilled numbers into our heads (5 kingdoms of living species, 3 states of matter, etc.) they were just begging to be disproved.
2 comments:
There are currently four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. As you know, each state of matter is a reflection of how quickly the molecules within a certain subject are moving. In solids, the molecules are pratically stationary. Add some heat, speed those molecules up a bit, and you get a liquid. Repeat there is gas. Plasma, the oft overlooked state of matter, is superheated gas in which the molecules are moving so fast that they are practically tearing themselves apart. At present, plasma is largely theoretical. It is supposed to exist in the sun, say, but has not been created on earth.
I suppose, in keeping with your theme, we should be wondering what would happen if we super heat plasma?
Yes, actually! One of the first lessons I teach my students is how science only advances by disproving hypotheses, not the other way around. Well done!
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