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We learn from our senses. For example, our sense of taste helps us seek out and ingest needed nutrients, according to researchers David V. Smith and Robert F. Margolskee. Smith and Margolskee said the sweetness of sugar and the pleasure people associate with it draw us to carbohydrates. Deficiencies also propel people, they said. For instance, humans who need sodium will seek out foods high in this mineral. So the sense of taste is important when it comes to getting what we need to survive.

On the other hand, our sense of taste also prevents us from ingesting things that are harmful to us. There is a strong link between taste and disgust. We reject any intensely bitter substance. It’s probably no accident, since many substances that are toxic to humans are bitter in taste, such as strychnine and other common plant alkaloids.

These reactions, pleasure and disgust, appear to be present at birth and are connected to the lower brainstem. Scientists know this because animals that have had their forebrains surgically disconnected and human infants who are born without forebrains still register disgust and pleasure in their facial expressions.

The experience of pleasure and displeasure when it comes to taste points to the fact that animals, and that includes humans, learn from taste attraction and aversion. In other words, if we eat something then experience disgust, we will generally try to avoid that food in the future. That also steers us away from ingesting dangerous, even deadly, substances, while pleasurable tastes often lead us to find the nutrients and the energy sources we need.

Cyber Connections Strong

According to a survey conducted by the University of Southern California–Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, 43 percent of Internet users who are members of online communities said they "feel as strongly" about their virtual community as they do about real-world communities.

"More than a decade after the portals of the World Wide Web opened to the public, we are witnessing the true emergence of the Internet as the powerful personal and social phenomenon we knew it would become," said Jeffrey Cole, director of the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future. "The Internet has been a source of entertainment, information and communication since the web became available to the public in 1994. However, in 2006, we are beginning to measure real growth and discover new directions for the Internet as a comprehensive tool that people are using to touch the world."

Other findings included:

•  More than one-fifth of online community members (20.3 percent) take actions offline at least once a year that are related to their online community.

•  Almost two-thirds (64.9 percent) said they are involved in causes that were new to them when they began participating on the Internet.

•  More than 40 percent (43.7 percent) of online community members participate more in social activism since they started participating in the communities.

•  A significant number (56.6 percent) log on to their community at least once a day.

•  The number of users who keep blogs has more than doubled from 3.2 percent in 2003 to 7.4 percent.

•  The number of users who post pictures has more than doubled in three years from 11 percent to 23.6 percent.

•  More users maintain their own websites at 12.5 percent.

•  In 2006 Internet users reported making 4.65 friends online who they have never met in person.

•  Going online has increased the number of people Internet users regularly stay in contact with by 42.8 percent.

•  In 2006 37.7 percent of Internet users said that since they have gone online they are communicating more with family and friends. That’s down from 45 percent.