Science mysteries… explained!!! Yes, today on the JSP science blog, we’re going to solve that age-old science mystery… Why does orange juice taste so darn disgusting after you brush your teeth?  Wow, that’s a stumper. Luckily our crack scientific research team has found the answer. It turns out that taste buds hold the key to this juicy mystery. To help it taste things, your tongue is covered with 10,000 tiny taste buds, special groups of cells that send signals to your brain telling it when they detect certain tastes such as sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. They are found all over the top of your tongue on tiny bumps called papillae. When you brush your teeth, a chemical in your toothpaste, called sodium lauryl sulfate, interferes with the action of some of your taste buds. When you take of gulp of o.j. in the morning, you usually taste a lot of sweetness, a little bit of sourness, and a hint of a bitter taste. But after you brush those choppers and sodium lauryl sulfate has done its work, your taste receptors are no longer topnotch receptors for sweetness. The end result? The sour and bitter tastes take over and, well, you know the rest of the story. So be sure to drink that orange juice before you hit the bathroom to scrub your pearly whites. Of course, if you have trouble waking up in the morning, you might want to brush first. Nothing gives you quite the same jolt in the early hours as orange juice that tastes like battery acid. UGGGH!