They’re using cells harvested FORTY YEARS AGO for goodness sake.
Why should they go trying new cells when this chain gives consistent results? These cells are already there and wound up industry standard. Probably because nobody had bothered to harvest tastebuds, but since in the end they’re looking for bio-electric reaction it really doesn’t matter. You don’t care if the cells enjoy it, you just care if they react.
As if all cells could serve equally well in the stead of olfactory and taste cells?
Funny nobody told my taste buds for bitter that they ought to be able to respond to sweet and sour, and that my nose for a rose ought to be that for a skunk, etc. The sensory world would become a kaleidoscope of unpredictability!
It is implausible from an empirical point of view, though as a matter of mere science I would welcome seeing an explanation of how scientists coaxed these kidney cells into mimicking the capacity to recognize the similarity between various chemical guises of, say, a lime flavor, and to know that it isn’t a strawberry or vinegar or quinine. And I’d bet that much less than “40 years” went into that part of the study, and that if they could get a few golden tongues and golden noses to donate their bodies they could do far better with lines from that.