I drag myself reluctantly from the greased path of thread creep back to the road less traveled. On a science fact program on Canadian television (@Discovery if I remember properly) a scientist was discussing her work in schools debunking the image of science as this monolith of TRUTH. She discussed the ubiquitous science experiment of tasting liquids to identify the taste centres in your mouth. Most textbooks and teachers describe the perception of sweet,sour,salt and bitter as taking place in distinct areas of your mouth i.e. "You will taste sweet at the back of your tongue..." The interviewee said this was a complete fallacy. There was an early mis-translation of a German medical text. The German text stated that they discovered a tendency towards perception of tastes in different areas. The English text turned it into an absolute. In fact there is no difference in the function of the tastebuds from one portion of your mouth to the other. Generations of young students were pressured into perceiving something that wasn't there by teachers and textbooks that were wrong.

P.S. What is the name for the fifth taste dicovered by the Japanese?