Buzz
The tongue is primarily known for its role in speaking, tasting, chewing, swallowing, and engaging in intimate acts. However, its potential goes far beyond what most people think.
This incredible organ is equipped with 2,000 to 4,000 taste buds, which regenerate every week. On average, an adult tongue measures around 8.1 centimeters (3.2 inches) from tip to epiglottis, the cartilage flap that secures it at the back of the mouth.
Just like fingerprints, each tongue has its own distinct pattern, unique enough to be used as a form of personal identification, much like a snowflake.
While many see the tongue simply as a tool for basic tasks, others have explored its extraordinary capabilities. Some have mastered party tricks for laughs, while others have inherited techniques passed down through generations, possibly as old as language itself.
10. Stopping a Metal Fan
Some individuals are born adrenaline junkies, craving the rush of tackling seemingly impossible challenges. Brad Byers wasn't content with a normal life or the safety it offered. Straight out of high school, he jumped into the circus.
He was initially recruited for his remarkable juggling abilities, but he quickly raised the stakes by mastering the dangerous art of sword swallowing. Today, he is one of the few individuals in the world capable of swallowing a curved sword. Within just a couple of years, Byers outgrew the circus and became a global sensation.
Known for performing cringe-worthy feats, Byers' iron tongue is truly one of a kind. He subjects his tongue to a variety of torturous challenges of his own invention. One such example is allowing tarantulas and scorpions to crawl on his tongue without flinching.
In 2015, he set a world record by snapping 12 rat traps (because mousetraps weren't challenging enough) onto his tongue in under 60 seconds. The stunt resulted in a permanent scar, but rather than prompting a career change, Byers pressed on.
Two years later, Byers had a brilliant idea: he decided to place his tongue inside an industrial fan with razor-sharp metal blades spinning at high speed. To everyone’s amazement, his iron tongue actually stopped the fan. But one attempt wasn’t enough, so he repeated it seven more times. For any skeptics, the video above tells the tale.
9. Focus Technique
There’s a simple yet charming trick known around the world, especially among children: sticking out the tongue when concentrating hard on a task. This instinctive behavior may actually have a purpose, as it’s thought to channel brainpower directly to the tongue. The tongue is a large muscle, always active and in motion.
Sensitive receptors in the tongue are continuously mapping the boundaries of the mouth, sending information to the brain, even without the person being conscious of it. The tongue keeps busy swallowing, avoiding sharp teeth, and helping prevent choking.
When a person thinks in words, they may unknowingly mouth the words because the tongue is closely linked to the brain's language center. Biting the tongue or letting it rest to the side can help reduce this stream of thoughts. Musicians, particularly when performing a solo, often do this to aid concentration, as it enhances brainpower and focus.
8. The Art of Whistling
Kuskoy, a remote mountain village in Turkey, is a hidden gem for linguists. This isolated community is known for its unique ability to communicate through a language of tonal whistles, a practice called ‘bird language’ that allows residents to convey complex ideas with ease.
Whistled languages tend to emerge in difficult terrains, like dense jungles or rugged highlands, where long-distance communication is vital. In Kuskoy, this bird language can carry over vast distances. By using their tongues, teeth, and fingers, the villagers create distinct whistles that travel far and wide.
This whistled form of communication resembles the sounds of singing birds, making it more akin to music than spoken language. This perplexes neuroscientists, as the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for language, while the right hemisphere governs music-related functions such as pitch and melody.
Unfortunately, time may be running out for linguists hoping to study the whistling dialect. Younger generations aren’t adopting it, and the tradition is gradually disappearing. Only about 10,000 people still possess the ability to speak this unique language.
7. Cherry Stem Knots
Tying a cherry stem into a knot using only your tongue has long been a popular party trick, but Al Gliniecki took it to a whole new level. His first attempt took him 20 minutes of sheer determination, but just a few months later, he was already breaking records. He tied 679 cherry stems with his tongue in one hour.
Since then, Gliniecki has surpassed his own record multiple times. His current best stands at 911 stems in one hour. He also holds the record for tying 14 stems in just one minute!
Due to the suggestive nature of tying a cherry stem with his tongue, Gliniecki is constantly approached by random women. Although he has a fiancée, this doesn’t stop strangers from calling him in the middle of the night to challenge his impressive tongue-tying skills.
6. Tongue Twisters
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have identified what they claim is the world’s toughest tongue twister, and it’s one you might not have heard of. The phrase goes: “Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.”
Participants either couldn’t repeat the phrase 10 times in a row or simply gave up trying. Tongue twisters are famously challenging and fun to say, thanks to their tricky nature.
Some individuals, like psycholinguist Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel, dedicate their careers to understanding the complexities of this tongue trick. She points out that the sounds “th” and “sh” are especially difficult to pronounce in sequence. A prime example is the classic tongue twister: “Sally sells seashells down by the seashore.”
Shattuck-Hufnagel compares this challenge to rubbing your belly with one hand while simultaneously tapping your head. The alternating patterns are counterintuitive, making it a puzzle for the brain to process.
5. Extinguishing Matches
Fire-eaters have dazzled crowds for centuries, performing in sideshows and on street corners. There are many urban legends about how one can eat fire and put it out with their mouth, like allegedly coating the tongue with fire-resistant substances.
At its core, however, it all boils down to a simple scientific principle: heat always rises. The trick is said to be as simple as extinguishing a candle with your fingers. But, of course, it requires plenty of practice.
In Slovakia, Pavol Durdik spends his leisure time breaking strange world records. One such record is for the longest time spent blowing milk bubbles, which he showcased on YouTube. He also built the tallest tower of CDs balanced on a tennis ball.
It’s evident that Durdik has a lot of free time, but he also took on a remarkable form of tongue challenge. In 2017, he managed to put out 58 matches on his tongue in just one minute.
As if he hadn’t already subjected his tongue to enough suffering, Durdik decided to set another record for the most clothespins clipped to his tongue. He succeeded by attaching a total of 14 clothespins.
4. Smoke Rings
The fascinating art of exhaling smoke rings is more than it appears. Smoke rings are created through the principles of fluid dynamics. Essentially, it's about displacing the air to form a circular vortex. The air disturbance is caused by shaping your mouth into an O.
One method to create this effect involves sharp coughs from the throat, initiated by the diaphragm, which forcefully expel the smoke in short bursts. A simple long exhale won’t work, as it will fail to maintain the ring shape.
To shape the ring, the tongue should be pulled back with the tip pointed downward. While you might not be creating intricate smoke sculptures like Gandalf, blowing a smoke ring is a simple trick that just requires practice.
3. Pulling A Car
Contrary to popular belief, the tongue isn’t just one powerful muscle. It is composed of eight separate muscles that interweave, much like an elephant’s trunk. These muscles combine to create a muscular hydrostat, which provides impressive strength. The tongue’s endurance is truly astonishing.
Gordo Gamsby is an extreme example of the tongue’s strength capabilities. He once pulled a car weighing 1,056 kilograms (2,328 lbs) by attaching a hook to his tongue. This earned him a Guinness World Record, one of nine world records he holds. (He also set a record for smashing the most concrete blocks on his belly while lying on a bed of sharp nails.)
Before Gamsby takes the stage to perform his incredible feats, he enters a meditative state to steady his body and mind. Once in this calm state, the pain no longer seems to affect him. He shares, “I absolutely love what I do and wouldn’t rather be doing anything else.”
2. Tricking Taste Receptors
Taste buds are clusters of specialized cells that evolved to help humans survive. For instance, the back of the tongue detects bitter flavors to help humans quickly identify and reject poisonous or spoiled foods.
On the flip side, salty and sweet tastes are particularly pleasing to our taste buds. This indicates that the food we are eating is rich in nutrients. However, there are ways to deceive the tongue into perceiving flavors that aren’t truly there.
Phantom tastes are sensations that linger on the tongue and cause other foods to taste different from usual—for example, the strange flavor of orange juice after brushing one’s teeth. Linda Bartoshuk, a taste scientist at the University of Florida, investigates this curious phenomenon. She discovered that certain substances interact with the tongue to trick the brain into perceiving a flavor that isn’t actually present.
Bartoshuk conducted an experiment where various fluids were placed on a subject’s tongue, followed by a glass of water. When asked to describe the water, participants mistakenly identified it as a sugary drink or a flavored beverage.
According to Bartoshuk, you can completely eliminate your ability to taste sweetness by consuming a pill containing the Indian herb, Gymnema sylvestre. Referred to as the “sugar destroyer,” it blocks sweet receptors for at least 30 minutes.
In contrast, a pill with miraculin has the reverse effect and neutralizes bitterness. It transforms the taste of lemons or limes into that of a sweet, sugary dessert.
1. Clicking
A genetic study suggests that the clicking languages spoken in southern and eastern Africa may have been among the earliest forms of human language. This would have been roughly 40,000 years ago when humans first began migrating from the African continent, the birthplace of civilization. Over time, however, most humans lost the ability to click and developed other languages in its place.
Approximately 30 clicking languages are still in use today. These languages produce a range of click sounds by pulling the tongue down from the roof of the mouth. Each language typically has about five distinct click sounds. This remarkable linguistic feature may offer insights into the ancient roots of our species' mother tongue.
