Lifeboat Foundation

Where you people most often get their information regarding cannabis? This is what a recent study published in the Journal of Cannabis Research hopes to address as a team of researchers led by the University of Michigan Medical School investigated the methods by which everyday citizens receive their information regarding cannabis, specifically pertaining to its legality, which comes on the heels of its classification from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug recently being recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services.

For the study, the researchers conducted a survey of 1,161 participants ages 18 and up regarding their cannabis use within the past year, reasons for use, and the sources where they obtain their information regarding cannabis. The participants consisted of 51 percent women and 49 percent men with 27 percent reporting using cannabis within the past year. Regarding their sources of information, 35.6 percent reported it was from family and friends, 33.7 percent reported it was from websites, 9.3 percent from healthcare providers, 8.6 percent from employees where the cannabis was purchased, and 4.7 percent was from government agencies.

The study concludes by saying, “In this nationally representative survey, we show that most people draw information about cannabis from friends and family or online, with very few consulting their healthcare provider or government agencies. As cannabis accessibility and legality is increasing, there is a strong need for better clinician education, public outreach strategies, and improved communication between patients and clinicians about cannabis.”

Elon Musk revealed a prototype of the long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood film studio — but investors aren’t wowed.

A new habitat in Earth’s orbit.

Harder than a diamond, stronger than steel, as flexible as rubber and lighter than aluminum. These are just some of the properties attributed to graphene. Although this material has sparked great interest in the scientific community in recent years, there is still no cheap and sustainable enough method for its high-quality manufacturing on an industrial scale.

A new computer simulation of how our brains develop and grow neurons has been built by scientists from the University of Surrey. Along with improving our understanding of how the brain works, researchers hope that the models will contribute to neurodegenerative disease research and, someday, stem cell research that helps regenerate brain tissue.

The Top 4 Most viewed videos in the FENS Video Contest will be announced on June 10. View and Share to Vote for your favourite!

Description of the video:
This video is about how memories are stored in the brain. We are exploring how with an experiment, called long-term potentiation (LTP), we can modulate the strength of the connection between neurons. Combining filming in the laboratory with the use of bioinformatic tools and animation, we try to illustrate the cellular and molecular basis of this phenomenon.

Continue reading “What Memories Are Made Of” »

A newly discovered cluster-scale strong gravitational lens, with a rare alignment of seven background lensed galaxies, provides a unique opportunity to study cosmology.

In a rare and extraordinary discovery, researchers have identified a unique configuration of galaxies that form the most exquisitely aligned gravitational lens found to date. The Carousel Lens is a massive cluster-scale gravitational lens system that will enable researchers to delve deeper into the mysteries of the cosmos, including dark matter and dark energy.

“This is an amazingly lucky ‘galactic line-up’ — a chance alignment of multiple galaxies across a line-of-sight spanning most of the observable universe,” said David Schlegel, a co-author of the study and a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Physics Division. “Finding one such alignment is a needle in the haystack. Finding all of these is like eight needles precisely lined up inside that haystack.”

After thousands of years as a highly valuable commodity, silk continues to surprise. Now it may help usher in a whole new direction for microelectronics and computing.

While silk protein has been deployed in designer electronics, its use is currently limited in part because silk fibers are a messy tangle of spaghetti-like strands.

Weight-maintaining hormone key to brain-signal transmission. A study more closely links obesity to dementia, finding that leptin, a hormone that helps maintain normal body weight, is associated with better signal-transmitting brain white matter in middle-aged adults.

New research is more closely linking obesity to dementia.

Higher levels of leptin, a hormone that helps maintain normal body weight, is associated with better signal-transmitting brain white matter in middle-aged adults, according to a study by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio).