Washington, Oct 14 : Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have found that two interacting genes related to bitter taste sensitivity, TAS2R16 and TAS2R38, play an important role in a person’s development of nicotine dependence and smoking behaviour.

The researchers also found that people with higher taste sensitivity aren’t as likely to become dependant on nicotine as people with decreased taste sensitivity.

Their findings one day may be key in identifying people at risk for nicotine dependence.

Washington, Oct. 14 : Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has proposed new measures to put the American economy back on track, including adding 60 billion dollars in new tax breaks and other benefits to his economic stimulus plan.

According to The Telegraph, the other costly new proposals include:

A temporary tax credit for firms that create jobs in the U. S.

Penalty-free 401(k) and IRA withdrawals through 2009, to allow families to withdraw up to 15 percent of their savings, up to $10,000.

Washington, Oct 14 : New images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have revealed a giant cyclone at Saturn’s north pole, and show that a similarly monstrous cyclone churning at Saturn’s south pole is powered by Earth-like storm patterns.

The new-found cyclone at Saturn’s north pole is only visible in the near-infrared wavelengths because the north pole is in winter, thus in darkness to visible-light cameras.

Washington, Oct 14 : Observations by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the computer simulations used to explain them, hint at weather patterns on distant planets that are truly alien to what are found on Earth.

Approximately 300 planets have been discovered around other stars, and for most of those planets, scientists know little more than the mass and orbital properties of the planet.

However, for a handful of the brightest planets, temperatures have been inferred from observations carried out with spacebased platforms such as NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

Washington, Oct 14 : A population survey of West African chimpanzees living in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) has revealed that this endangered subspecies has dropped in numbers by a whopping 90 percent since the last survey was conducted 18 years ago.

The few remaining chimpanzees are now highly fragmented, with only one viable population living in Taï National Park.

Washington, Oct 14 : A new study has offered the first direct evidence of wild bonobos hunting and eating the young of other primate species, despite their “make-love-not-war” kind of image.

While chimpanzee males frequently band together to hunt and kill monkeys, the more peaceful bonobos were believed to restrict what meat they do eat to forest antelopes, squirrels, and rodents.

But now, a new study offers the first direct evidence of wild bonobos hunting and eating other primates as well.