Ways of learning

Smoking provides so many stories—from the science of addiction, through the epidemiology of causation, to the David and Goliath battles between anti-tobacco activists and the tobacco industry. This week's news round up, on smoking in public places, offers smoking as a backcloth to cultural differences (p 727). Americans and Australians resort pretty quickly to the law; in Britain few specific laws exist, but social pressure has acted to limit smoking in workplaces and public places; in France, in contrast, there are laws to limit smoking in bars and restaurants—but social pressure to ignore …