Supertasters and tomographic reconstruction

Wikipedia is a fun place to browse for any subject you happen to be digging into. Perhaps better than howstuffworks.com, it has detail and links that can be very helpful in understanding something. Two recent subjects I looked at are listed in the title.

Tomographic reconstruction is the first. I was looking up the difference between radiologist and radiographer. Unless in or among the fields one probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. My brother is in radiography, and that is the operators of X-ray equipment. This led me to different types of X-rays, MRI's, and something called CT scans. Standing for computer tomography, it led to another page named tomographic reconstruction. This is a mathematical method of constructing the picture of what you X-ray. For your geek reading pleasure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomographic_reconstruction

The second is supertasters. Something I just heard of, it is on wikipedia as well! What on earth are they? People with a large number of fungiform papillae to be specific. They don't like particular tastes, being much more sensitive to bitterness in foods. Broccoli, spinach, brussels sprouts, olives, coffee, and alcoholic drink, are just a few supertasters may avoid. I've encountered a couple ways to test. One is take a spoonful of water with sweet and low (saccharin) mixed into it, and take a drop of that and place it on your tongue. If sweet you are a non-taster or perhaps a mid-taster. If bitter, you are more likely a super-taster. Another test involves litmus type strips of varying types. I didn't have either of these, so I took the last test. Take blue food coloring, drop 1 bit on your tongue and swallow. Try to keep your tongue a bit dry by keeping it out and look in the mirror to see. Near the tip end, you'll see a number of spots that are not blue. These are the fungiform papillae. Find a lot and you are more likely a supertaster. For your reading pleasure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster


It has been awhile since I posted, and these seemed as interesting as anything to read about on a day off.