Tip of the Tongue: Humans May Taste at Least 6 Flavors

We cook, therefore we are. Over the millennia, humankind – hardly content to eat plants, animals and fungi raw – has created a smorgasbord of cuisines.

Yet for all our sophistication in the kitchen, the scientific understanding of how we taste food could still use some time in the oven. Dating back to ancient Greece and China, the sensation of taste has historically been described as a combination of a handful of distinct perceptions. Western food research, for example, has long been dominated by the four "basic tastes" of sweet, bitter, sour and salty.

In recent decades, however, molecular biology and other modern sciences have dashed this tidy paradigm. For example, Western science now recognizes the East's umami (savory) as a basic taste. But even the age-old concept of basic tastes is starting to crumble. 

"There is no accepted definition of a basic taste," said Michael Tordoff, a behavioral geneticist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. "The rules are changing as we speak."

Read more at:  http://www.livescience.com/17684-sixth-basic-taste.html

Kangaroo loves cider, Vegemite - and Skippy

An Australian woman who adopted an orphaned baby kangaroo says he's developing some very human traits.

Julianna Bradley says Beemer loves Vegemite on toast, drinking cider, playing football and watching television.

Ms Bradley, of Glendambo, South Australia, says his favourite television programme - naturally - is Skippy.

"He just stands there and watches it. He relates to it, he loves the theme music and dances to it," she said.

She became Beemer's adopted mum 18 months ago when he was rescued from his mother's pouch after she was killed by a motorcycle.