Be careful when you write the title to your scientific works (or any work) lest you produce something that can be misinterpreted like I misinterpreted this particular title, morphing it into this hysterical  concept of having a  “barbeque”.  After all it does say “taste-testing”.

So here is the title of the RA Fisher et al, article in Nature, way back in 1939. “Taste-testing the Anthropoid Apes.” R. A. FISHER, E. B. FORD & JULIAN HUXLEY . Nature volume 144, page 750 (28 October 1939).

What this silly interpretation led to was kind of interesting, and while I wasn’t about to pay 8$ to read the original Fisher et al article, I did find an open source article from 2003 (Stephen Woodling. Genetics 172(4):2015-23) that offered up some equally flavorful language from that 1939 publication. The old guys did not hesitate to “opine” in their publications and banter back in forth in actual publications.  The topic here was phenylthiocarbamine — which some individuals can taste as “bitter” and to others is completely “tasteless”.  These guys saw a pattern of inheritance, and one of the best known Mendelian (nearly simple) traits in humans, which paved the way for about 70 years of new investigations. Would love to have time and knowledge enough to read and interpret all these articles.