While much concern has been generated by the obesity epidemic in the United States in recent years, with about one-third of adults obese in 2007-2008, new data suggest that the rate of increase for obesity may be slowing, say the authors of a study appearing in the January 20 issue of JAMA.

"Data from 1988-1994 showed that the prevalence of obesity in adults had increased by approximately 8 percentage points in the United States since 1976-1980, after being relatively stable over the period 1960-1980. Analyses of data from 1999-2000 showed further increases in obesity for both men and women and in all age groups," the authors write.

If left unaddressed, the U.S. government's growing debt will inevitably limit America's future wealth and risk a disruptive fiscal crisis, claims a new report from the National Research Council and the National Academy of Public Administration. The report lays out several tax and spending options that would stabilize the national debt within a decade as well as a set of simple tests to determine whether any proposed federal budget would lead to long-term fiscal stability.

The rate of smoking among nursing students is twice that of the general population, indicates a survey of over 800 new nursing students published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Busy bodies in the health community argue the results indicate that smoking cessation programs should be incorporated into nursing studies. They say that smoking among healthcare professionals undermines the credibility of anti-smoking campaigns aimed at the general public.

 The Tibetan Plateau—thought to be the primary source of heat that drives the South Asian monsoon—may have far less of an effect than moist, warm air insulated over continental India by the Himalayas and other surrounding mountains, say Harvard climate scientists writing this week in Nature.

The team says that understanding the monsoon's proper origin, especially in the context of global climate change, is crucial for the future sustainability of the region. The findings also have broad implications for how the Asian climate may have responded to mountain uplift in the past, and for how it might respond to surface changes in the coming decades, the researchers say.

Conservation efforts aimed at protecting Gorillas And Elephants in African parks and reserves  are well intentioned but are often based on incorrect assumptions about the local culture, say Purdue University anthropologists. In a new Conservation Biology paper, the team says that understanding local human communities is key to protecting the wildlife they live alongside.

While most researchers and policy makers are looking to new technologies to slow the pace of climate change, scientists from Cornell University and the University of New South Wales are reporting that "biochar" — a material that the Amazonian Indians used to enhance soil fertility centuries ago — has potential in the modern world to help slow global climate change. Mass production of biochar could capture and sock away carbon that otherwise would wind up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. .