Hasta La Gadget!

The human body is weird. A U.K. man recently underwent surgery to remove a tooth growing in his ear. And who could forget the tale of the newborn baby who had a fully-formed foot growing in its brain!? Crazy, right? But, as it turns out, it’s not just the occasional misplaced tooth or aberrant foot, everybody is a freak. According to a recent discovery: we can taste with our lungs.

Researchers at the Maryland School of Medicine recently published their findings regarding a strange discovery: we all have bitter taste receptors growing in our bronchial tissue. The team came upon the find accidentally while pursuing unrelated research into muscle receptors in the lungs.

The bitter taste receptors are the exact same kind located on the tongue, but with two differences: unlike on the tongue, the lung receptors are not bunched into taste buds, and they don’t seem to communicate directly to the brain.

However, these findings may have very real implications for asthma patients. Bitter taste receptors tend to tighten or constrict muscle tissue around them. These lung receptors may exist for a very practical reason: to prevent bitter-tasting plant based poisons from entering the body. But in asthma patients, these reactors may become stimulated by man-made chemicals that they mistake for naturally-occurring plant toxins.

Just nuts.