Smoking, of course, plays hob with the body. Heart disease, emphysema and various cancers – lung, laryngeal and stomach, to name a few – all have been shown to have tobacco as a cause.

Now researchers are finding that nicotine can also alter the developing brain. A team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports in a recent paper that nicotine can affect the operation of a gene linked to the development of synapses of the maturing adolescent rat brain.