Pills, vaccines in development to help smokers quit\nOTON, Conn. -- Researchers are racing to develop a potentially lucrative drug that would make smoking as treatable as erectile dysfunction, high cholesterol and acid reflux disease.\nMajor pharmaceutical companies and small startups see the potential for billions of dollars in sales for a vaccine or a nicotine-free pill that could end addiction at the chemical level for America's 50 million smokers.\nUnlike methods available now, such as gums and patches, that lessen nicotine's effect on the brain, researchers are tailoring drugs block nicotine's chemical reactions with the body.\nIn Connecticut, researchers at Pfizer Inc. identified a brain receptor that nicotine binds to and designed a drug, varenicline, that latches to the same site. Varenicline is in Phase III testing, normally the last step before a company applies for approval from the Food and Drug Administration.\nResearchers hope that the drug will attach to nicotine receptors in the brain, preventing overpowering cravings from setting in when someone stops smoking. \nThen there's NicVax, a drug that Florida-based Nabi Pharmaceuticals claims could be used as a nicotine vaccine. NicVax triggers the production of antibodies that bind to nicotine molecules, preventing them from reacting with receptors in the brain.\nNicVax has shown promise in early trials and could begin Phase III testing late this year, the company said.
Study reveals faults in Einstein's theory\nAlbert Einstein is known for his crazy hair, the poster hanging on dorm rooms with his tongue sticking out and, of course, the theory of relativity. But a new study published in the journal Physical Review today shows research that light as we see it might be the result of small violations of relativity -- showing a possible error in Einstein's famous equation.\nExisting theories state that space is without direction and the properties of light are the result of an underlying symmetry of nature. But in this study, IU physics professor Alan Kostelecky said that light pervades to every vector in empty space. He found light is able to spread throughout space from the breaking of a symmetry of relativity. \nThis theory shows certain breaches are possible within the theory of relativity. Through Kostelecky's work, detectable results include asymmetries between properties of some particles and antiparticles, and cyclic variations in their behavior as Earth rotates. \nThis theory of light can be tested by studying the properties of light and its interactions with matter and gravity.
