How Octopuses Are Able to Taste by Touching

Giesen et al.Molecular Basis of Chemotactile Sensation in Octopus. Cell, October 2020.

Octopuses have often captured human interest with the ability to use their eight suction-cup covered tentacles for touch and taste. Scientists have wondered for decades how their appendages work but very few have studied what happens on a molecular level. In a new report, researchers got a glimpse into how the nervous system in an octopus’ tentacles manage these functions. They identified a novel family of sensors in the first layer of cells inside the suction cups that have adapted to react and detect molecules that do not dissolve well in water. The chemotactile receptors on these sensory cells use those molecules to help the animal figure out what it is touching and whether or not that object is prey. This allows an octopus to distinguish between a rock versus a tasty crab. The underlying mechanism is that there are two types of sensory cells in the suckers that line their tentacles: mechanosensory cells for touch and chemosensory cells for taste.  Both taste- and touch-oriented cells are critical for helping octopuses to decide when to hunt and when to retreat. It is well known that particles on land easily travel through the air before they might be sniffed by a bear or a wolf’s nostrils. However, the process of smelling or tasting is much less clear in cephalopods that live in the ocean. Some chemicals can travel far from their underwater source and thus make it possible for some creatures to catch a smell of their prey from afar. But for chemicals that don’t move through the ocean easily, a touch-taste strategy can be useful for marine animals, including octopuses. While people tend to perceive five basic tastes – sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami (meaty) – octopuses experience the world of taste differently. Instead, scientists found the most success by stimulating octopuses to respond to what are called terpenoid molecules, a secretion that is often released by marine invertebrates that functions as a defense or warning signal. They smell these molecules and can, in a way, smell fear in their prey.

Natural Forest Regrowth May Be the Best Method to Combat Climate Change

Cook-Patton et al. Mapping carbon accumulation potential from global natural forest regrowth. Nature, September 2020.

Reforestation has been considered the leading strategy in the fight to mitigate the effects of climate change with previous studies highlighting the role it can play in capturing and storing atmospheric carbon. There are many ways to incorporate trees into our landscapes, however one of the cheapest and easiest options is to allow forests to regrow on their own if conditions can permit them to. Now, a new study has mapped the potential carbon accumulation in naturally regrown forests over the next 30 years. Researchers from 18 countries brought together more than 13,000 georeferenced measurements of carbon accumulation to generate a wall-to-wall, one-kilometer-resolution map spanning 43 countries that highlights areas with the greatest carbon returns if trees were allowed to reforest naturally. The team demonstrated that natural forest regrowth can capture up to 23 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO²) emissions from the atmosphere every year. This is on top of the carbon sequestration already provided by existing forests, which absorb around 30 percent of annual CO² emissions. The biggest advantage of natural restoration of forests is that it often requires nothing more than human inaction. Nature is constantly at work doing its duty to restore forests often unseen on the edges of fields, on abandoned pastures, and wherever forests lie degraded or former forest land is abandoned. Moreover, natural forest regrowth may promote the re-establishment of local tree species that are best equipped to survive in a given location and support the many organisms that eat them or dwell amongst their branches and roots.

However, natural regrowth may not always be the answer. For example, at sites that are highly degraded, or seed sources are far away, actively planting trees can help to start or speed recovery while helping to establish the right species mix for current and future conditions. While planting trees can sometimes be necessary it should usually be the last option since it is one of the most expensive and often least successful methods of combating climate change. It is estimated that humanity should collectively plant about a trillion trees over the next three decades to effectively fight climate change, which averages out to about a thousand new trees planted in the ground every second and assumes that every tree survives and grows in a healthy manner. Once the cost of nurseries, soil preparation, seeding, and thinning are accounted for, it would easily cost hundreds of billions of dollars. If natural forest growth is cheaper and better then why not work to protect the existing trees and let forests to grow on their own?

Li et al. Innate connectivity patterns drive the development of the visual word form area. Scientific Reports, October 2020

A new study suggests that humans are born with a part of the brain that is prewired to be receptive to seeing words and letters. Researchers analyzed brain fMRI scans of 40 newborns and found that the “visual word form area” (VWFA) was already connected to the language network of the brain, which is akin to the scans of 40 adults. These findings are quite surprising considering some researchers had hypothesized that the pre-reading VWFA starts out like any other part of the visual cortex that are sensitive to seeing faces, scenes, or other objects and only becomes selective to words and letters as children learn to read or at least as they learn language. However, a new study shows that even at birth, the VWFA is more functionally connected to the language network of the brain than it is to other areas. It is likely that experience with spoken and written language will strengthen connections with specific aspects of the language circuit and further differentiate this region’s function from its neighbors as a person gains literacy. The main goal of this study is to learn how the brain becomes a “reading brain” and to help understand the differences in reading behavior, which could become useful in the study of dyslexia and other developmental disorders.

Aromatherapy involved inhaling pleasant smells and is a non-medicinal form of treatment for various psychological disorders. A nice smell triggers hormones of happiness (serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphin) and helps overcome depression by stimulating the brain. A smell disorder is a malfunction that might even indicate neurological and psychological illnesses. One of the most crucial parts of the brain that is impacted by Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s is the region that specializes in sense of smell. We mostly fail to notice what a blessing it is to be able to smell until we lose it. Otherwise, we are exposed to thousands of different smells every day.

Even minor issues with the nose can cause major inconveniences. Nasal congestion lessens the quality of everyday life: it is hard to sleep with a congested nose; even if you manage to fall sleep, the quality of sleep drops significantly.

The magnificent functions of the nose are as follows:

1. Sense of smell enables us to identify beneficial and harmful things and keep away from harmful ones. The nose helps spread the feeling of peace and happiness produced by nice smells that influence the spirit through the brain (olfaction).
2. The nose helps protect the respiratory passage from diseases by moistening and heating the inhaled air as it is carried to the lungs and cleaning foreign objects from the lungs with the mucus it secretes (inspiration and regulation).
3. It regulates the resonance of sound vibrations formed in the vocal cords, thereby virtually acting as loudspeakers (phonation).

These functions are miraculous, and yet we never contemplate them or their perfect engineering.

The nose: our body’s air-conditioning device

Before inhaled air reaches our lungs, it passes a turbulent current through the nose, which is by all means a perfect air-conditioning device and air filter.

Air that enters the nasal cavities through the nostrils flows through inner nasal canals to the nasopharynx (upper-frontal pharynx). It then flows down the pharynx to the larynx and finally to the lungs. Inside the nostrils are hairs that trap and filter dust, sand, pollen, and little bugs. Cleaned of these particles, air then passes through canals (meatus), which are anatomical engineering wonders in each nostril, and over turbinal structures (conchae) (Figure 1).

The exterior of these scroll-shaped canals in the nasal cavity are lined with a moist layer that secretes the fluid called mucus. Thanks to the magnificent architecture of the air conditioning chimney made up of these canals and folds, particles of dust are retained by this mucosa membrane. On this membrane there are also thin hairs (cilia) which constantly wave to and fro. This movement carries particles of dust not toward the lungs but toward the nostrils, which are then expelled when the person sneezes or blows the nose. If it were not for this precisely built structure, the inhaled air would directly go to the lungs without undergoing cleaning.

The inner working of the nose also heat or cool air, as necessary. The mucosa that lines the inside of the nose is rich in capillaries and mucus secretion. As inhaled air travels through the nose, it both warms up by absorbing heat from the blood in the mucosa veins and gains moisture by absorbing it from the mucosa. For example, when a person inhales through air from a room where the temperature is 20-22°C (68-71°F), the air heats up to 32-35°C (89-95°F) and becomes 95-98% moist by the time it reaches the larynx. If the same person breathes in through the mouth in the same room, the inhaled air can warm only up to 28–30°C (82-86°F) and reach a moisture point of 80-85%.

Without the nose, air would not be heated, moistened, and purified. The dusty, dirty, or cold air we inhale would directly go to the lungs, which would cause frequent illnesses in them and the upper respiratory tract.

How do we smell?

The nose is created with the ability to distinguish about ten thousand different smells. Its magnificent architecture is a perfect means of transport that facilitates the sense of smell in our brain, which is the real center of smell in our body. As this sense of smell function in our body, we take pleasure out of it in our soul.

The “smell molecules” communicated through the air first reach the receptors in the “olfactory epithelium” in the upper region of the nose that is equipped with a multitude of nerve cells. The stimulus that is converted into an electrical signal in this epithelium is conveyed to the smell center in the brain through olfactory nerves (Figure 2). All this process the smell molecules go through in the nose and the brain interact and impact with our soul in such a subtle way that we take delight and even be healed.

The sense of smell in certain animals (especially in dogs, moths, and some fish species) is hundreds of times more sensitive than in humans. For these animals, it is crucial for finding food and their survival.

The inability to perceive smells, or “smell blindness” (also called “anomia” in medicine), can be temporary or permanent depending on the underlying factor. Anomia is usually temporary in cases of the flu, cold, bad sinus congestion, or allergies. A decrease in olfactory sensitivity (hyposmia) can also be caused by nasal congestion, enlarged adenoids, nasal polyps, nasal deviations, or concha bullosa, which prevent air currents from reaching the olfactory region. The sense of smell usually recovers when these anatomical abnormalities are corrected; only in cases when duration of sinusitis is prolonged, namely when it becomes chronic, does loss of smell become permanent.

The impact of the nose on our voice quality

We can feel the effect of our nose on our voice quality, such as when the voice changes due to congestion or closing the nostrils with our fingers. Experienced physicians can immediately diagnose nasal congestion from the way a patient talks. Life is indeed an ordeal for people who cannot breathe easily through their noses.

Air cleared of germs

Nasal mucus is a slightly acidic secretion that carries an antibody called “immune globulin A” (IgA). Its slight acidity as well as the antibody in it allows the mucus to eliminate various germs, and the respiratory tracts are thus protected against perilous sources of illness.

The tiny sweeping hairs that line the interior of the nose can break down or stop working altogether because of certain germs, particularly viruses that cause the flu, filthy and dry air, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and cigarette smoke. Because nasal cleaning is disrupted, disease-inducing microorganisms can easily cause upper respiratory tract inflammation and other serious infections.

 The nose’s role in taste

Smell is crucial for a better perception of taste. Indeed, when there is a problem with the function of smell, a person’s sense of taste suffers, too. Nice smells have a favorable impact on the sense of smell. If we could not detect the bad smell of a rotten, harmful food item, we would not be able to stop ourselves from eating it and harming our body.

The importance of smell is highlighted in religious traditions. It is reported that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, mentioned putting on pleasant perfumes among other things that were the traditions of the messengers of God. Clippings from mush, camphor, amber or aloeswood were also burnt in the Prophet’s home for their pleasant scents.

Humans rarely consider their sense of smell. In fact, we tend to take it for granted. But through the nose’s perfect design, we are to smell and taste so much of the world around us, which is surely an everyday miracle.

Figure 1: The magnificent design of the anatomy of the nose

Figure 2: The awe-inspiring structure of the olfactory region

Some people might see me as a rough piece of flesh that wiggles in the mouth. Of course I am not that simple! By looking at my color, some experienced doctors can even diagnose an illness. For example, some well-known symptoms that I show are whitening due to fever, becoming dark brown when you have typhoid, blackening because of a yeast infection, or having a smooth surface because of anemia or lack of niacin (a B-group vitamin).

If you are wondering what my primary duties are, I can say that the first is to help to produce speech, an ability which distinguishes you human beings from animals. For sure this speech production is not only mine. First of all the brain, which is the coordinator of all the organs including me, regulates all my movements in speaking. The other organs that help me form sounds to make words are your teeth, lips, palate, the vocal cords in your throat, and your lungs, which work like an air pump and vibrate those cords. As you see, so many of us work together just to produce your speech.

Other than the speech function, my second major duty is to work as an inspector to taste and process the countless fruits and delicious foods that are given by God. That is how you get an idea about an animal- or plant-based substance that you want to eat. If I did not exist, you might die because of a poisonous plant that you ate out of hunger. Many poisonous substances have a bitter taste. Indeed, I can sense their bad taste the moment I touch them and warn you to spit out the thing in your mouth immediately. When you eat sweet and delicious things, however, I make you remember and thank God, who has given them to you. However, you should be careful about my fondness for taste and control yourself since that is part of a God-given test. My Creator has made a relation between my love of taste and the evil-commanding side of your soul. He has also made me a step for your spiritual development. If you eat and drink too much, which means you are misled by your evil-commanding side and abuse my sense of taste, it will be you who lose. I do what my duty requires and get the taste of everything. But it is your job to use your will power and not to be defeated by your evil-commanding self (nafs). I will never stop you, whether you eat one piece of baklava or ten; I will get the taste of every piece. Do not ever blame me for that!

I have another function that many people are not aware of. My movement causes a negative pressure in the cavity of the mouth. Are you wondering what this negative pressure does? This pressure is needed especially for babies to nurse on their mothers’ breast easily; I help them in the sucking movement. In addition to that, as everybody knows, I have very important functions in chewing and swallowing food. I manipulate the food in your mouth; I soften and moisten it with saliva so that it can be easily swallowed. Also, during swallowing, I move the food back toward the pharynx. I have to be very careful while doing all this, since at my smallest mistake, your teeth might bite and hurt me.

Of course, I can do all this only with the help of my Creator, who has built my anatomy of delicate tissues and cells. Since He never does anything absurd or useless, He has given every organ qualities that are both esthetic and functional. My main body consists of seventeen muscles, eight of which are in pairs. They extend in all directions. Among those muscles are the lipid membrane and some salivary glands. I am the most flexible organ in your body. My many strong muscles enable me to move in lots of directions easily. Those muscles are covered by an epithelial lining which is called the mucous membrane. The small projections on my upper surface are called papillae. These papillae are of several types. They contain receptors which allow you to sense taste and the salivary glands that help me stay wet all the time. The papillae cover as far as an A-shaped line towards my back which makes up a third of my length. Here at my back, there are plenty of salivary glands and the lymphoid tissue, also known as the lingual tonsil. Many germs that enter through your mouth get trapped here. The papillae are named according to their shapes. The filiform papillae (which are long and thin) do not contain taste buds. They only provide a rough surface to move the food easily. The food is moistened by your saliva and crushed by your teeth. Then, with the help of these papillae, I help to shape the food into smaller pieces to make it easier to swallow. The fungiform papillae are mushroom-shaped and scattered among the filiform papillae. They are located at the center of my top surface and they contain taste buds. The circumvallate papillae lie along the A-shaped line which makes up the border of my back. These papillae are larger in size and smaller in number; there are around thirteen of them. Each taste bud on the fungiform papillae has 50 to 75 receptor cells which live for only seven to ten days. When cells die because of hot or acidic foods, new ones are created to make new nerves for the taste buds. Only substances that are dissolved in water can reach the taste receptors. That is why I cannot taste a dry substance that you have taken into your mouth right away; it has to be moistened and softened first. Tasting occurs in the receptor cells of taste, where some analyses are undertaken much more delicately than in a chemistry laboratory. My receptor cells change this chemical stimulus into an electrical stimulus and send it to your brain. This electrical stimulus allows the sense of taste to be perceived.

Among the many kinds of taste, there are four major groups. The taste buds for sweetness are located near my front; the taste buds for saltiness are scattered widely on my surface; the taste buds for bitterness are found at my back; and the taste buds for sourness are on my sides.

My under surface extends between my tip and the floor of your mouth. The mucous membrane that covers this surface is smooth and does not contain papillae. It is purple in color because of the many blood vessels that are inside me and nourish me. By the way, the famous saying that “the tongue does not have a bone” is wrong, since I do have a bone. However, this bone is not located in my front body, which is why I am very flexible and I can say whatever you command me to say. But by my muscles and ligaments I am firmly bound to a U-shaped bone (the hyoid bone) at my root. I am connected to your lower jaw by this bone.

I can have disorders, like every other organ. In fact, many disorders in me are an indication of disorders in the other organs or of a metabolic illness. For example, mouth ulcers can often be seen on me. Some types of mouth ulcer are caused by stress, lack of sleep, or lack of vitamins. Others occur as a result of absorption disorders and as a symptom of Behcet’s syndrome. Some ulcers can last for weeks and they can be very painful. You might suffer from this pain especially when you speak and eat. Diseases such as syphilis and herpes also show themselves as ulcers on me. I might even become cancerous in people who smoke or in those who eat and drink things that are too hot. I sometimes show the symptoms of some metabolic disorders like Down’s Syndrome, the blockage of lymph vessels, glycogenosis and amiloidosis. In these disorders, my muscle mass shows excessive growth due to abnormally deposited glycogen and amyloid.

Dear Peter, until now, your “speechless organs” have talked about themselves in their own tongue. I have always talked, but I have always talked on your behalf, expressing your thoughts and feelings. It is you who are responsible for what I have said, good or bad, since I am bound to your will power. However, today I spoke in my own tongue, and on behalf of our Creator. As is well known, I am an organ that has great potential for both evil and good. It is your duty to control me and use me well. Do not ever forget that I am not a simple mass of muscle, epithelium and nerves. Rather, I am a tool that can be used for both debasing and elevating you. From now on, when you eat an apple, do not swallow it before chewing well; wait till I get the flavor of it very well. In that way, you will have an opportunity to thank God for the food you are given. He is the One who not only gave you that apple, but also me, the organ that can taste it. This is just another amazing thing that makes your life beautiful! By thanking God, you will deepen your worship of Him.

Irfan Yilmaz is a professor of biology at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.

Once the heart has found You,

Would it ever remember another?

Once it has burned in Your fire,

Would it ever burn in another?

Only those who have found You

Are purified in an incessant flow;

Satisfied with Your love,

Would they ever be content with another?

You gave being to the universe,

All life emanates from You.

Having found Your ocean,

Would they ever dive into another?

Your Name is recited everywhere;

It is the cure for the ailments of the soul.

Once having truly believed in You,

Would they ever assume their Lord to be another?

Absorbed in awe at Your beauty,

On the path of love,

Once having tasted the honey from Your comb,

Would they ever taste another?

Once having discovered You,

Hastening towards and meeting You,

Having entered Your sanctuary,

Would they ever seek another?

Once you realize these things about you and the life that you are living, then it really sounds outrageous when people think they have made a good work of art or they have great taste in art. Could it not be that all people have the same taste but only each individual’s perception is different, as opposed to all people having the same level of perception but different taste?

Most people think that taste is something subjective, that is, everybody has their own taste and that is the end of it. There is nothing more to discuss about taste. Hence, there is no such thing as good taste or bad. Everybody has things they like and things they do not, but no one can say that their taste is any better than someone else’s. Thus, we are all tempted to accept the unquestionable character of taste as the truth since almost everybody agrees on it. Although the majority view is often considered acceptable as a way of ascertaining the truth, there are quite a few examples that show that is just not correct. This article is about one of those examples.

If you are part of the big majority of people that thinks there is no such thing as good taste, you should also think that there is no such thing as good art. I can imagine if I was giving a talk about this article and presenting this exact same argument, there would be fifty hands going up objecting: “That can’t be true; there is Mona Lisa, there is Tortoise Trainer, there is this, and there is that.” But then, whoever did not like Mona Lisa or Tortoise Trainer would just have worse taste than yours, or anybody else who liked it might have better taste for that matter. Hence, we arrive at the conclusion that if there is no good taste, then there is no good art. If we follow the argument further, then there is no good artist.

Suppose you are making a painting or writing a poem, what do you think would be guiding you throughout the whole process? The inevitable answer to this question must be “taste” because each stroke of your brush or each line you add is a decision made by you with the help of your taste. Every move you make is a result of your conscious or subconscious thought that it would make your piece better. But then, if you think that there is no place for a concept of being better in art, you should not be able to make any moves. Not only that, by the same token a brand new blank canvas would be just as good as the ceiling of the Hagia Sophia. What is more, by saving a lot of time and energy, you are doing even better with the blank canvas than the guy who painted the ceiling of Hagia Sophia.

Probably you are thinking that the author of these lines has really lost it now! And maybe, you are thinking that it is about time to move on to the next article. But hold on a second!

I think I may have a solution to this nonsense. If Da Vinci was in Robinson Crusoe’s place, he would still draw the Mona Lisa on that island, but surely, he would be happier if thousands of people came to see it every day. So, there is more to art than pure taste; art has people who appreciate it. It could be argued that an artist enjoys his piece for two possible reasons. First, just because he likes what he does; second, there is an audience who will appreciate what he does.

But before appreciation come attention and interest. People must pay attention or need to have an interest before they understand or even think about something. Only after that do they recognize something is beautiful, and after that comes the appreciation.

Attention and interest are two very broad terms. There are so many different things that attract my attention or interest me, often without me knowing it. Sometimes the rhyme of a poem is so soothing and pleasant that I do not even know, when I read it the first time, that I have actually fallen in love with it. I realize this when I figure out that I have learned the whole thing after a few recitations without expending any special effort to memorize it. It is as if, all of a sudden, I start hearing the constant relaxing whistle of a tall reed in my ears along with the wind. It is a great pleasure to fall asleep in the ambiance of that reed. The bed is no different than a throne for me at that moment.

Once I discover such a lone reed with a soothing melody, I visit her from time to time when I get really tired and need some rest. Then, on one of those visits, just before I fall asleep, I see a ray of a different color through the leaves of the reed; one which I had not noticed before. It is an irreplaceable touch. Surely the poet must have hidden it among the leaves and the branches only for his loyal visitors. Exhilarated by the discovery of this beauty, I start telling the fellows in the shade around me about it. I hear you saying now, “Oh! I thought you were alone under the tree.” No, no! That is impossible. If there is a reed, there will always be fellows under the shade, some for the whistle, some for the colors, some for something you do not know, but there will be always some people enjoying it.

I tell you the little story about me and the poet just to make a point about the type of art that intrigues us. Some art lies in the background quietly, some shakes our very souls and makes us tremble. Some gets carved into our brains immediately, whereas some types challenge our intelligence. In all of those different kinds of good art there is a very essential thing in common. It is the common things that the audience shares.

Although poetry is a type of art with a very broad audience, we can always imagine some people who would have no interest in it at all. Maybe a better example would be a type of beauty that would interest absolutely everybody in this world. Is there anything like that? There are tons of things like that. Who would not like a nightingale singing near dawn, or a warm breeze on the cheek, the harmony of different tones of green in a broad forest, human faces, and the like. Let us focus, for example, on that last one. All of us find human faces interesting, right? I believe that it is encoded in our DNA. A parallel to this is the obsessive compulsion of sculptors to make human faces all the time. Or, think about the number of people whose faces you know but not their names and vice versa. Which number is bigger do you think?

If you are not convinced by these arguments or think that maybe I am biased due to the conditions that I developed in, let us put the same question to babies, who are not biased, at least not just yet! Let us see what they have got to say about this. If you are worried that we cannot really understand what they are saying, there is some help from the psychologists. “In 1961, the psychologist Robert Fantz devised an ingenious method to find out about babies and faces. He designed a stand in which, on the bottom level, the baby lies on his back, looking up. A few feet above is a display area where the experimenter puts two large cards, each containing a design-a white circle, a yellow circle, a bull’s eye, or a simple sketch of face. The researcher, peering down through a tiny peephole, can watch the movement of the baby’s eyes and time how long they are directed at one or the other of each pair of patterns. Fantz found that at two months babies looked twice as long at a bull’s eye as at a circle of solid color, and twice as long at a sketch of a face as at a bull’s eye. Evidently, even a two-month-old can distinguish major differences and direct his gaze toward what he finds more interesting.”¹

With this in mind, we are compelled to acknowledge that the human face appeals to an innate common taste in all humans, either because it is beautiful in itself or because it contains most, if not all, of the things that are to “the common taste” of all humans. Then we can conclude that, as humans, our design is such that we are at least able to appreciate the same things.

Finally, we are in a position to define good art. Good art is such that it passes from its creator and reaches a lot of people who enjoy gazing upon it. Good art attracts attention and interest from a lot of people with different characteristics from different cultures and regardless of all their differences, the essential thing is they all have the same aptitude to enjoy the same thing in various different ways. In other words, good art is a manifestation of unity in multiplicity.

_______________________

1. Hunt, M., The Story of Psychology, pp. 366, Anchor Books, 1993

To chemically identify substances, scientists around the world are trying to develop artificial taste sensors that mimic the human tongue. Recently researchers at the University of Texas in Austin have developed an electronic sensor that has the potential to detect taste as well as to identify the chemicals of any substances.1 It has uses for food and beverage development as well as medical applications.

Besides the tongue, an electronic nose has also recently been developed to mimic the sense of smell, but it can only detect volatile molecules in the air. Since many chemicals of interest, such as those in food and beverages, are not easily transported into vapor phase, there needs to be a way of detecting a combination of them in solution, such as the electronic tongue.

A team of engineers and chemists in Austin has come up with a prototype of the artificial tongue which resembles the mammalian tongue in some ways. The surface of the human tongue contains cavities which hold chemical receptors known as taste buds. The artificial tongue consists of an array of tiny chemical sensors on a square-centimeter chip. The sensors are actually polymer microbeads placed inside micromachined wells on a silicon wafer which mimics real taste buds on a human tongue. Each bead responds to specific conditions (for example, high acidity or charged ions). A special camera records those colors, which the researchers can then monitor on a computer.

One obvious application of the electronic tongue is in the rapid testing of new foods and beverages; the results could be quickly compared with databases of known popular consumer tastes. When developed further, the electronic tongue should be able to analyze chemical processing streams, biological fluids and other complex mixtures without exposing human beings to possibly harmful substances such as antigens, toxins, and bacteria. For the tasting of ice cream, though, we will likely continue to use our own tongues.

FOOTNOTES

• J.J. Lavigne, S. Savoy, M.B. Clevenger, J.E. Ritchic, B. McDoniel, S.J. Yoo, E.V.
• Ansyln, J. T. McDevitt, J. B. Shear and D. Neikirk, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1998, 120, 6429-6430.
• See also R. Dagani, Chem. & Eng. News, June 29, 1998, 12.

Sight: When we look around, we see several shades of colors and hundreds of thousands of images. Human beings, and several animals, are able to see images when light enters the eye and releases an electrical signal through our the nerves to the brain. These signals are then transformed into the images, or pictures, that we see. All creatures see these images differently; some see images in different outlines in shape, color, clarity, circumstances, and distance.

Dogs, because of their hunting needs, see twice as much as do human beings. In addition, dogs have an outstanding ability to follow movement and to perceive direction, speed, and trajectory. Trajectory is what gives dogs the innate ability to plot an angle and predict an angle of movement. For example, dogs have an astonishing ability to know the exact spot where a moving object will land and know from which angle it will be coming. This is the reason why dogs are such good ball and Frisbee catchers; because they visually know the exact point of impact of an object as it falls back to the ground. Cats, on the other hand, have a different reason for being such good jumpers. Cats’ faces are flat between the eyes, a rare feature in the animal world, which makes it easier for them to work together. As a result, a cat can focus sharply and three-dimensionally, an ability that allows it to visually judge distances with great accuracy before jumping.

Rabbits, for example, are one of the few animals that can see all around them (front and back) without turning in either direction. Their eyes are located on the sides of their head, which enables them to see in all directions. Rabbits, frequent preys for predators, are always on the alert, and their eyes are located in the best place to help them see their enemies.

Human beings and wildlife animals have two kinds of vision cells that are located inside the back of the eye: cones and rods. Cones detect colors in bright light, including black, white, and gray. Rods provide sharp vision in dim light, but do not detect colors. Night creatures have more rods than cones, which provide them with sharper vision at night-but with only shades of gray. Also, to assist these creatures in the dark, they have a special layer in the back of their eyes, called the tapetum, which acts as a mirror when light passes through it. If the rod does not detect the light during the first passing, the tapetum reflects the light back to the rod, thus giving the rod a second chance to pick up on the light and see an image. It is this layer that makes some animal’s eyes shine in dim light.

An owl’s eye, for example, is so sensitive in picking up light, that research shows that an owl can follow a trial lit up by a candle 1,000 feet away (3,600 meters).1

Another amazing sight feature is found in predator birds: “telescopic” eyes that allow them to see by making a far away distant object appear larger. Birds such as the hawk and eagle have the sharpest sight of any animal. These birds have about 1.04 million vision cells in the back of their eyes, which that enables them to see a mouse from as far as one mile away.2 (Human beings have only about 130 million vision cells.)3

Although animals are believed to see colors similar to the way humans do, scientists are not sure how bees and insects see color. Scientists believe that, among some other creatures, bees, birds, and insects can see a color that human beings can not: ultraviolet colors. In addition to red, blue, and yellow, flowers often have ultraviolet patterns that show these birds and insects the way to the plant’s nectar and pollen. Such sight makes it possible for these creatures to find and feed on the flowers’ nectar and pollen.

However, not all animals have only two eyes. Jumping spiders, for instance, have eight eyes. There are two big eyes in the front, and six smaller eyes on the top of the head slightly toward the sides. The two front eyes are very well developed and act as a pair of binoculars that give the spider a clear image of objects up to one foot (30 cms) away. The little eyes are called secondary eyes. These eyes can spot moving objects and have a built-in reflecting layer that helps the spider to see objects in dim light. The secondary eyes are the eyes that actually measure the distance the spider needs to jump to catch its prey.

Hearing: Just as with other senses, human beings and animals have different levels of hearing. Most animals have only two ears, which helps all of us locate the origin of a sound. Having two ears helps us locate where a sound comes from. Since sound reaches the ears at slightly different times, this makes a sound louder than in one ear. This difference in volume and arrival time in one ear is an indication as to the origin of the sound. Sound is expressed in hertz (cycles per second), which are repetitive vibrations per second. Adult human beings, with a normal hearing ability, can hear from twenty to twenty thousand cycles per second. Amazingly, wolves can hear up to eighty thousand cycles per second, and dogs can hear up to thirty-five thousand cycles per second, almost twice as many as humans.

Cats have a surprising hearing of between fifty to one hundred thousand cycles per second-three to five times than what human beings can hear. In addition, a cat’s ear has thirty muscles that control the ear muscles that can rotate 180 degrees. This give cats the opportunity to hear its surroundings without moving its head.

An owl’s ear, however, are located at different heights. The difference in height enables an owlit to determine if a noise is coming from a high distance or from the ground. Another interesting feature of many owls is a flat heart-shaped face. The shape of its face functions as a reflector that makes faint sounds louder. These two features enable owls to be the great hunters they are and helps them to hunt in the dark.

Not all animals and insects have “ears”; some have holes in either in their head or in another part of their body, and others have eardrums, such as birds, insects, and fish. Fish’s ears, for example, are located under its skin behind its eyes. This way, a fish can pick up on vibrations that pass their skin under the water. Other fish makes some of these noises by vibrating an internal organ or by rubbing their fins together. Fish use these vibrations to communicate with other fish, to mate, to warn other fish, or to swim together in groups.

Smell: Animals with different smelling needs have been created with different noses and different smelling abilities. Among the different abilities and noses, an elephant’s nose stands out in many individuals’ minds; at least mine. These animals’ noses are so amazingly equipped with different functions, it is surprising. An elephant’s nose (trunk) and upper lip weighs, on average, 300 lbs. (136 kgs.), and can take up and hold more than one gallon (3.7 lt.) of water at a time for spraying on another animal’s back. The trunk is also strong enough to pick up large logs, yet functional enough to gather thin blades to eat. In addition, an elephant can raise its trunk high in the air to smell if any predators are in the area. Another function that I grin at, is that elephants weighing so heavy sink to the bottom of a rivers when they try crossing it; however, they use their noses as snorkels when crossing a deep river by lifting their noses high above the water line to breathe.

Dogs have an astounding sense of smell; they are one of the animals with the best sense of smell. Dogs can pick up odors in concentrations of one part per trillion. A book called Scent, published by veterinarian Dr. Hugo Verbruggen, and dog trainer Milo D. Pearsall, mentions an experiment that illustrates how well dogs can pick up odors. It mentions that if a single gram of butyric acid, a chemical constituent in human perspiration, were released in a ten-story building and evaporated, a human being might be able to smell the odor for a very short moment by sniffing at a window. A dog, in comparison though, would be able to pick up the odor in the same amount if it were to spread over a city the size of Philadelphia anywhere within the city up to an altitude of three hundred feet (90 meters).4 It also mentions that if humans had only ten percent of a dog’s smelling ability that dogs have, we would have a totally different understanding of our world we.

Camels are desert animals that have been created with special channels that can hold moisture in the dry desert. Also, when the wind blows, a camel can close its nostrils to keep out the sand and dust.

Ants also fascinate me. These tiny creatures use odors to identify if an ant belongs in their colony or if it is an intruder. In addition, when an ant dies a certain odor is released, and other ants in the colony will carry the dead ant to a burial site. An experiment has been performed by scientists that placed this “dead” odor on a healthy ant. Although the marked ant was struggling and kept returning to the nest, other ants constantly carried this marked ant to their burial grounds in the belief that it was dead.5

Taste: Taste and smell are chemical senses. Although scientists can only guess what an animal can and does taste, they do know that animals have different taste buds. Taste buds are made up of tiny taste cells that enable us to taste sweet, sour, bitter, and salty substances. Mammals have the most taste buds, while birds have the fewest; insects have none. However, these animals and insects have special taste cells to detect the certain foods they need for survival.

Touch: All animals have a sense of touch. Many scientists believe that touch is the most important sense. The sense of touch indicates if we are hurt, cold, hot, and much more. Blind and visually impaired individuals rely on the feeling of touch to read Braille. Many animals and insects, however, have built-in antennas that help them avoid too close physical contact with other insects and help them detect food and surrounding conditions.

A blowfly (any fly that deposits its eggs on meat or wounds), for instance, uses its antennas to determine if the wind conditions are best for flying. If the wind is blowing too fast, the blowfly will wait until the wind calms down. This is an important feature, for this insect would not be able to survive flying in a strong wind.

Many animals and insects rely on the sensing of vibrations. For example, a spider relies on the shaking of its web to understand if it has caught food or if another spider has come to mate. A spider feels the vibrations through its long legs by waiting at the edge of its web. It is understood that when a spider returns to its web, it shakes the web to see how it vibrates. The results will let it know if something has been caught.

It is also interesting that some animals seek and show affection through touch, just like human beings do. Cats, dogs, monkeys, seals, and lions are some examples that show love and affection. As a cat owner, it is interesting to see the understanding of affection through touch. They enjoy being petted and seek for affection. A question asked by people, who have a cat or have been near a cat, is that why do cats purr and what causes this noise. Scientists believe that purring is produced by blood in a large vein in the chest that vibrates and is then magnified by air in the windpipe.6 Someone petting a cat can actually feel this vibration. Cats usually purr when they are happy or when being shown affection. However, the cat’s purr is more than a sign of content. Kittens, unlike many animals, are born blind and deaf. The vibration of their mother’s purring is a physical sign that the kittens can feel; it is somewhat of a signal to the kittens to be close to the mother and nurse. Also, the kittens’ purr is a signal back to the mother that their kittens are getting their milk and are healthy. This is an extraordinary survival mechanism.

“Super-natural senses”: There are several sensing abilities that scientists can not explain or categorize due to the several unique senses possessed by several animals and insects. Among them is the mosquito’s remarkable sense of heat that leads them to their victims. Female mosquitoes follow have several, however, the most remarkable one is that they can sense temperature differences of less than 1/250th of a degree Fahrenheit. This amazing sense of temperature enables them to land on the warmest and best vein of blood for food.

Another sense scientists have difficulty explaining is that birds, bees, and some other creatures have magnetism. Just as a compass has a magnetic needle that points north, these creatures have natural magnets that help them migrate and find food by using the earth’s magnetic field. They have natural tiny crystals of iron oxide, or also called magnetite, made front iron found in their blood. This enables these adorable creations to still find their way even when they can not see the sun.

People for many years have been puzzled how animals can sense an earthquake before its any “obvious” signs. One of the explanations is that animals, as described throughout the article, have unique and even, in some cases, better senses than human beings. Therefore, they are able to pick up on vibrations, sounds, and odors that humans physically can not, which may indicate to them that a disaster is about to occur.

A final note: Besides their senses, animals have a uniqueness and wondrous superiority over other animals the other with their physical attributes and characteristics. For example, some animals see or hear better than other animals, and some animals have unique physical attributes that other animals do not have. If you look at the beautiful and majestic kingdom of animals, you will find that each animal has a different beauty and awe that deserves much appreciation. This is a component that makes this world a fascinating and perfectly created one.

REFERENCES

1. The National Wildlife Federation “What do Do Animals See, Hear, Smell, and Feel?” (1990).
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Roger A Caras, A Dog is Listening. Summit Books. 1992.
5. The National Wildlife Federation” What do Do Animals See, Hear, Smell, and Feel?” (1990).
6. Arline Bleecker, “Why Do Cats Sulk?” Globe Digests. 1998.

First of all, games and toys must help children to broaden their minds and become familiar with present and emerging technology. Thus, with some reservations, we would commend model and toy trains, planes, ships, robots and the like.

Secondly, in order to develop an aesthetic sense and a taste for art, children may be encouraged to play at decorating walls, doors and windows, designing book covers, arranging flowers and laying out gardens, etc.

Thirdly, children should be encouraged to use toys and play games that develop their design and constructive capabilities. Blocks of diverse sizes, shapes and colours, as well as other building toys’ for making houses, garages, bridges and the like, can be strongly recommended.

In later childhood and early youth, children will begin to ask for toys and amusements of different kinds. It is important for a responsible guardian to develop a taste in the young for games appropriate to their age. The games we have in mind can be roughly divided into two groups:

1 Those aiming at developing the aesthetic sense and constructive powers (For examples, see above); and

2 Those that train physical abilities and promote development of the body. Examples of the latter are sports such as running, swimming, riding, wrestling, archery, fencing and the so-called ‘martial arts’ (judo and karate are the best known).

Each of these sports (and other similar ones, according to the needs of the time and place) should be encouraged as they come within the circle of the permitted (halal) and are very effective in developing discipline and strength, balance and grace. Their value as entertainment and pastime is, as it were, an additional bonus. In adolescents, sports involving physical exertion and concentration help their bodily development and channel their energies. Older people can also benefit from such exercise which can prevent many of the ailments that arise from prolonged physical inactivity.

Among games and sports, archery, riding, swimming, and running merit special emphasis. They teach poise and confidence on land, water and air, qualities vital to the leaders and enterprising spirits every nation needs for its survival and prosperity.

Although in our tradition the ‘martial arts’ (judo, karate, etc.) receive little mention, they can certainly be recommended insofar as they do not contradict our moral principles and do not entail unacceptable risk of injury

Other games and sports might also be commended so long as they do not lead children to waste time or open ways to them way to commit sins. Games that involve gambling or betting are of course forbidden and can on no account be advised either for children or adults. However, we may note in passing, following the opinion of Imam Shafi’i, that chess is permissible unless played for money. Children who have a bent for that kind of mental activity could therefore be directed towards chess, until they reach adolescence.

Any kind of play or entertainment which counters or debases our ethics is unacceptable for both children and adults. Also, sounds and images, instruments and melodies, which arouse evil and lustful sentiments and so corrupt the soul are absolutely forbidden. It is unreasonable, and an unkindness to the young, to open the doors for them to forbidden entertainments while those within the circle of the permitted are quite satisfactory. The principal concern of education generally and, therefore, the principal concern of games and sports also, is to provide children with noble feelings and to keep them healthy spiritually as well as physically. It hardly needs saying that forbidden games and entertainments are not intended to raise children to humanity or to ennoble their feelings; rather, it is often the case that they have a negative, corrupting effect on their minds and spirits,

In sum, there is a need for moral awareness and guidance in the choice of entertainment, sports, games, and toys, just as in other elements of the education of the young. Failure to seek and provide such guidance will mean – instead of the healthy, balanced, morally sound and contented adults we desire to make of the young – exposing them to emotional and spiritual damage, with all the evil consequences for social life that follow therefrom.