Pill may help people lose weight as they quit smoking

BAD HABITS

Tackling two major problems at once, a new pill in development appears to double people's success in quitting smoking while also helping them lose considerable amounts of weight. The drug, called rimonabant, is in the final stages of testing and could be available in a year or two. It works in an entirely new way, taming urges for food and cigarettes by blocking the same circuits in the brain that make pot smokers hungry. Two rimonabant studies were released last week at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology. In one University of Cincinnati study of 787 heavy smokers, 28 percent of those on rimonabant were able to avoid cigarettes for at least a monthcompared to 16 percent of those on placebos -- andone-third of the quitters were able to lose weight at the same time. Ordinarily, smokers gain six to 10 pounds when they quit. In a yearlong Canadian study of 1,036 overweight volunteers, those taking rimonabant lost an average of 20 pounds, compared to 5 pounds for those on placebos. "We found a spectacular drop in waistlines and changes in many other risk factors that are beyond what you would ordinarily expect," said Dr. Jean-Pierre Despres of Laval University in Quebec City. The research was financed by the drug's developer, a French company, Sanofi-Synthelabo.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASTRONOMY

What would you do with the Hubble?

If you have any ideas about what to do with the massive, orbiting Hubble Space Telescope now that its final servicing mission has been canceled, here's your chance to tell NASA what you think. Even while lawmakers and researchers are debating the observatory's ultimate fate, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is looking for proposals as to how to extend Hubble's useful scientific life and also as to how to dispose of the telescope safely once its mission is over. For interested parties, NASA has posted information on the program at http://hubble.gsfc.nasa.gov/end-of-mission.html. But you'd better hurry: Ideas for Hubble's "end-of-mission alternatives" are due by Monday.
AGNIESZKA BISKUP

EVOLUTION

A Darwinian explanation for Grandma

In contrast to most other animals, who reproduce until they die, human females live long after their childbearing years are over. Researchers offer proof in the March 11 Nature why this anomaly makes evolutionary sense: Grandmothers, by helping their own children bring up children, ensure that more of their genes are passed on to future generations. Mirkka Lahdenpera of the University of Turku in Finland and her colleagues studied multigenerational demographic records of Finnish and Canadian women during the 18th and 19th centuries. According to their study, the longer a woman lived past menopause, the more successfully her children reproduced, breeding earlier and more frequently, and raising more offspring to adulthood. The researchers discovered that women gained, on average, two extra grandchildren for every 10 years they survived past age 50. A grandmother can pass on her child-care knowledge and also help care for her grandchildren, team member Virpi Lummaa stated in a press release, "making it more likely that her children will have more children more quickly."
AGNIESZKA BISKUP

ECOLOGY

'Undisturbed' rainforests disturbed after all

The Amazonian rainforests are changing, even in areas untouched by human activities such as logging, clearing, or burning -- and rising levels of carbon dioxide may be to blame. Over the past 20 years, the species composition of the "pristine" Amazon has altered to favor tall, fast-growing trees, a team of US and Brazilian researchers reported in the March 11 Nature. They suspect that the carbon dioxide, which plants use for growth, is fertilizing the rainforest, giving the faster-growing species the advantage over slower-growing neighbors, which are in decline. The authors warn that this composition change may affect the rainforests' ability to absorb carbon dioxide,implicated in global warming: Faster-growing trees produce wood less dense than slower-growing varieties, meaning they'll store less carbon. "The changes in Amazonian forests really jump out at you," lead author William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama stated in a press release. "It's a little scary to realize that seemingly pristine forests can change so quickly and dramatically." He added: "If you change the tree communities, then other species -- especially the animals that feed on and pollinate the trees -- will undoubtedly change as well."
AGNIESZKA BISKUP