US researchers Richard Axel and linda buck received the 2004 NObel prize in physiology or mehicine  on monday .they got the award for their efforts to better understand the mysterious mechanism by which animals differentiare among odors .they sharwd thhe US $1.36 million prize.Axel,58,is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics and pathology at Columbia Umbia University in New York.Buck,57,is a me,ber of the US Mational Academy of Sciences at the Fred Hutchinson Caner Research Centre in Seattle.Washington.they discovered a family of about 1000 genes that priduce alarge variety of proteins that sense particular smells.these priteins are found in cells in nose that communicate with the brain. the pair published their work in 1991 after years of expetiments.before Axel and Buck'swork,scientists had no idea how many genes might be involved in smell. Nor did they kmow how tjose genes behaved inside cells ,or how the brain handled the information relayed by nasal cells to create a perception of smell. therefore,,we can consciously experience the smell of a particular flower in spring and recall this smell memory at other times ,the Nobel foundation said .thework has a range of practical applications; from the development of better tasting medicines to finding ways to block a mosquito's ability to smell humans.Sone of the odor-deteceing molecules identified by Axel have been patented by Columbia for commercial applications.the award for medicine opens a week of Nobel Ptizes that conxludes on October 11 with the economics prize.the peace prize wwill be announxed on October 8.the physics award is announced on t uesday and the chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesdau.A date for the literature pruze has not beeb set by the Swedish Academy.