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Individual brain chemistry and genes could be key to understanding why some people become addicted to nicotine and why the chemical compound's effects appear to diminish at night, University of Colorado at Boulder researchers say. "The depth of a person's addiction to nicotine appears to depend on his or her unique internal chemistry and genetic make-up," said lead author Jerry Stitzel, an assistant professor in CU-Boulder's department of integrative physiology and researcher with CU-Boulder's Institute for Behavioral Genetics.

Environmental science was a fledgling discipline when the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) was established in 1967. Forty years later, environmental science issues and the researchers who study them are in the spotlight.

The University of Colorado at Boulder is teaming up with the Boulder Rotary and Art Cleaners of Boulder on the 8th annual Winter Warmth Drive to collect warm winter clothing for needy individuals. The clothing drive begins on Monday, Nov. 5, and will continue through Wednesday, Nov. 28. Drop-off boxes will be located in all of the nine dean's offices and at several other locations. All clothing and blankets will be distributed through Boulder nonprofit agencies and blankets will be donated to the Boulder Homeless Shelter.

The University of Colorado at Boulder physics department will continue its Saturday Physics Series with a presentation on the invisible world of elementary particles and antiparticles on Nov. 10. Physics Professor William Ford will present the talk "Quantum Oscillations and Antimatter" at 2 p.m. in Duane Physics room G1B30. The event is free and open to the public.

NBC News correspondent Kevin Corke will return to his alma mater, the University of Colorado at Boulder, next week to give a lecture at Old Main Chapel. Corke will give the fourth annual John E. Holden Journalism Lecture, sponsored by the CU-Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication, on Tuesday, Nov. 6, at 5 p.m. His lecture, titled "Saints, Scoundrels and Scribes: Covering the 2008 Presidential Campaign," will be followed by a reception in the Heritage Center on the third floor of Old Main.

An annual assistive technology conference co-sponsored by the University of Colorado at Boulder will highlight Web and media access in higher education and business as well as cutting-edge tools for people living with sensory, physical and learning disabilities.

Large-scale fires in western and southeastern states can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a few weeks as some states' entire motor vehicle traffic in a year, according to newly published research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder. The paper, titled "Estimates of CO2 From Fires in the United States: Implications for Carbon Management," is being published online in the journal "Carbon Balance and Management." Primary funding for the study was by the National Science Foundation.

A recent $350,000 grant from the Denver Economic Development Corp. is supporting new Math, Engineering and Science Achievement Centers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado State University, along with a cadre of college student mentors who are working directly with students in MESA after-school programs at Colorado elementary, middle and high schools.

When combat veteran Matt Grove returned from Afghanistan and became a University of Colorado at Boulder student, he joined a growing number of college students who are also war veterans. To help determine the needs of this growing population of students and ease the transition from military to civilian life as a student, CU-Boulder has opened a new Office of Veterans Affairs.

An elementary school science project that spurred contentious school board meetings in Boulder six years ago and led to a national controversy dubbed "Barbiegate" has inspired a collection of academic essays about public discourse and democracy in action at the local level.