Instapundit says this is news I can use

[vaskidmark]

http://www.businessinsider.com/taste-receptors-in-testes-and-fertility-2013-7

although I'm not reallyt sure I'd want to.

But it does suggest an answer about dogs.  (Eww)

stay safe.

[Scout26]

Nope, sorry.  Can't use it.

[brimic]

I'll bite.
This is just efficiently using off-the-shelf parts to get a job done.
Taste sensors seem to be a generic sensor that can and is used several places.
It would be like building a complicated electronically controlled machine that uses temperature probes in a 1/2 dozen places. Instead of reinventing the wheel every place a probe is needed, use the same probes, and change the input/output parameters on how the software reads each probe and the decision it makes depending on each individual reading. A reading on the front end of the process doesn't mean the same thing as a reading on the tail end of the process (example- a probe measuring the temperature of feed stock is used in a different way and under a differetn set of parameters than a similar probe that measures evaporative cooling in another part of the process.)

[brimic]

This also reminds me of a discussion I had with my son a few weeks back about a song on the radio called “Open the eyes of my heart” that sort of went like this:
Son “wouldn’t it be weird if your heart had eyes?”
Me “That would be sort of creepy.”
Son “yeah, and you wouldn’t be able to see anything with them.”
Me “If you couldn’t see anything with them, how would you know that you had them?”
Son  “They could do an Xray or something.”