Dr. Aramis Odysseus: October 2017

31 October, 2017

Long-term effects of marijuana use on the brain

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Long-term effects of marijuana use on the brain

Scientists say they now have a much clearer picture of the climate catastrophe that followed the asteroid impact on Earth 66 million years ago. The researchers' investigations suggest the impact threw more than 300 billion tonnes of sulphur into the atmosphere.

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Scientists say they now have a much clearer picture of the climate catastrophe that followed the asteroid impact on Earth 66 million years ago. The researchers' investigations suggest the impact threw more than 300 billion tonnes of sulphur into the atmosphere.

A Protein Has Been Caught Conducting Electricity, And Scientists Are Baffled

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A Protein Has Been Caught Conducting Electricity, And Scientists Are Baffled

Sulfites inhibit the growth of four species of beneficial gut bacteria at concentrations regarded as safe for food | PlosOne

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Sulfites inhibit the growth of four species of beneficial gut bacteria at concentrations regarded as safe for food | PlosOne

Cancer drug prediction has yet to embrace the open-source movement, Georgia Tech researchers write. This week, they made public a machine learning platform that has built predictive models for 9 drugs. They don't care if people make money off the algorithm, as long as they advance treatments.

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Cancer drug prediction has yet to embrace the open-source movement, Georgia Tech researchers write. This week, they made public a machine learning platform that has built predictive models for 9 drugs. They don't care if people make money off the algorithm, as long as they advance treatments.

2,100 cities exceed recommended pollution levels, fueling climate change

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2,100 cities exceed recommended pollution levels, fueling climate change

Hi Reddit, we’re Robert Strongin and Jiries Meehan-Atrash of Portland State University! Ask us anything about analyzing the vapors created in cannabis dabbing, including the possible hazard of terpenes.

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ACS AMA

Hi Reddit! Robert Strongin and Jiries Meehan-Atrash here from Portland State University. We recently had a paper in ACS Omega entitled “Toxicant Formation in Dabbing: The Terpene Story” (http://ift.tt/2wQ8EdU). We describe there that “dabbing” means to put a small amount of cannabis-containing liquid such as butane hash oil on a hot surface, then inhale the vapors via a water pipe. This is an example of a noncombustible use of cannabis, i.e. not requiring smoking; Cannabis dabbing has found increased popularity as medicinal and recreational use has increased. Our study concludes “that dabbing, although considered a form of vaporization, may in fact deliver significant amounts of toxic degradation products”.

In this Ask Us Anything, we look forward to answering your questions about our research on chemical analysis of the vapors produced by cannabis “dabbing” – this could include the instrumentation we used, the chemical nature of terpenes and their degradation products, and toxicological ramifications.

Note that we are not medical experts, but chemists conducting analysis.

About us:

Robert Strongin, Ph.D.: I am a professor in the Portland State University Department of Chemistry and I have affiliate appointments at the Oregon Health and Sciences University. My research focuses broadly on redox and chromophore chemistry. It encompasses the creation of biosensors and molecular probes for studying oxidative stress and cancer, as well as the investigation of chemical reactions and products associated with the usage of electronic cigarettes and new cannabis formulations. I received my B.A. in chemistry from Temple University, then worked as an industrial chemist at FMC Corporation and SmithKline Beechman. I then obtained a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation, I began my independent career at Louisiana State University, then later moving to Portland State University. In addition to my academic research, I’m a biotech startup founder, an advocate for science funding, a regular grant review panel chairman at the National Institutes of Health, and dedicate much time to improving STEM education.

Jiries Meehan-Atrash: I am a Palestinian-American who attended high school at the Colegio "El Estudio" in Madrid, Spain. I then received a B.S. in chemistry at State University of New York at New Paltz, where I also did research in organic chemistry. After working in New York City as a freelance Spanish-English technical translator for two years, I enrolled in the chemistry graduate program at Portland State University. I’ve been working on the cannabis vaporizer toxicology project since its inception in January 2017 in Dr. Strongin’s lab.

We’ll be back at 1pm EDT (10am PDT, 5pm UTC) to start answering your questions.

">Hi Reddit, we’re Robert Strongin and Jiries Meehan-Atrash of Portland State University! Ask us anything about analyzing the vapors created in cannabis dabbing, including the possible hazard of terpenes.

Breastfeeding for at least two months could cut the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) nearly in half, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics.

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Breastfeeding for at least two months could cut the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) nearly in half, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics.

An Alzheimer’s protein can spread between mice that share a blood supply, causing brain degeneration, and suggesting that the disease may be transmissible via blood in a similar way to prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD).

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An Alzheimer’s protein can spread between mice that share a blood supply, causing brain degeneration, and suggesting that the disease may be transmissible via blood in a similar way to prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD).

Science AMA Series: I am Dr Sarah Malik, a dark matter researcher in Imperial College London’s High Energy Physics Group. My current research is using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to searching for particles that make up 'dark matter’. AMA!

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Hi Reddit!

I’m Dr Sarah Malik, a dark matter researcher at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom.

In October 2015 I was awarded a grant from the Royal Society to carry out research on producing and detecting dark matter using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

I find it fascinating that more than 80% of matter in the Universe is invisible to us, it doesn’t emit or reflect radiation. This is what we call "dark matter". We know it exists because it exerts a gravitational force on ordinary matter, playing a critical role in holding together galaxies and shaping the Universe as a whole.

There's reason to believe that it comprises particles that have mass, are electrically neutral and don't decay; beyond that, we have little understanding of dark matter. How many types of dark matter particles are there? What types of forces do they exert on each other and on the ordinary matter particles?

My current research aims to address these very questions. Discovering what 80% of matter in the Universe is made of will play a significant role in defining the future direction of particle physics and cosmology and mark an extraordinary development in our understanding of the world around us.

I will be back at 2pm ET to answer you questions, ask me anything!

Proof: http://ift.tt/2gYro3R http://ift.tt/2z1e2ex

To learn more about me and my research, follow me on Twitter (@SarahAlamMalik https://twitter.com/SarahAlamMalik). You can also see me talk about dark matter at the 2015 Blackett Colloquium (https://youtu.be/BHa65maMIFk), and on the Guardian ‘Big Unknowns’ podcast (from 16:36) (http://ift.tt/2gbqk6W).

">Science AMA Series: I am Dr Sarah Malik, a dark matter researcher in Imperial College London’s High Energy Physics Group. My current research is using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to searching for particles that make up 'dark matter’. AMA!

Study links poor understanding of the physical world to religious and paranormal beliefs

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Study links poor understanding of the physical world to religious and paranormal beliefs

New study in Nature shows how metals can be patterned at the nanoscale to be more resistant to fatigue, the slow accumulation of internal damage from repetitive strain, using nanotwins, tiny linear boundaries in a metal's atomic lattice that have identical crystalline structures on either side.

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New study in Nature shows how metals can be patterned at the nanoscale to be more resistant to fatigue, the slow accumulation of internal damage from repetitive strain, using nanotwins, tiny linear boundaries in a metal's atomic lattice that have identical crystalline structures on either side.

Bias Against Men When It Comes To Depression Treatment

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Bias Against Men When It Comes To Depression Treatment

The concept of schizophrenia is ‘dying’

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The concept of schizophrenia is ‘dying’

30 October, 2017

Climate change's impact on human health is already here — and is 'potentially irreversible,' report says. An additional 125 million people around the world were exposed to heat waves each year from 2000 to 2016 (as compared with 1986-2008)

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Climate change's impact on human health is already here — and is 'potentially irreversible,' report says. An additional 125 million people around the world were exposed to heat waves each year from 2000 to 2016 (as compared with 1986-2008)

An aspirin a day keeps many cancers away, study suggests

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An aspirin a day keeps many cancers away, study suggests

Biblical miracle turns out to be solar eclipse, study finds

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Biblical miracle turns out to be solar eclipse, study finds

Photons were caught behaving like superconducting electrons, swapping energy with partners. The effect was observed at room temperature, unlike electron pairing in extremely cold superconductors.

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Photons were caught behaving like superconducting electrons, swapping energy with partners. The effect was observed at room temperature, unlike electron pairing in extremely cold superconductors.

Information shared on social media is being regularly used in research projects without users' consent, a study suggests. Experts have called for tighter control of the practice, with fresh guidelines needed to ensure personal data is being used appropriately.

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Information shared on social media is being regularly used in research projects without users' consent, a study suggests. Experts have called for tighter control of the practice, with fresh guidelines needed to ensure personal data is being used appropriately.

Researchers discover that the brain does not age with time, instead there is a surge of aging displayed in middle aged neurons which may ultimately dictate onset and development of dementia later in life. This research suggests biomarkers can be used for early diagnosis before massive neural loss

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Researchers discover that the brain does not age with time, instead there is a surge of aging displayed in middle aged neurons which may ultimately dictate onset and development of dementia later in life. This research suggests biomarkers can be used for early diagnosis before massive neural loss

MRI Predicts Suicidality with 91% Accuracy

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MRI Predicts Suicidality with 91% Accuracy

Dutch cities that opened legal prostitution zones saw reductions in sexual abuse and rape by about 30-40 percent in the first two years

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Dutch cities that opened legal prostitution zones saw reductions in sexual abuse and rape by about 30-40 percent in the first two years

AI Scans Twitter for Signs of Opioid Abuse - Geotagged tweets using slang like “dummies,” “Captain Cody” or other drug handles could help pinpoint clusters of opioid problems more quickly than traditional methods do

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AI Scans Twitter for Signs of Opioid Abuse - Geotagged tweets using slang like “dummies,” “Captain Cody” or other drug handles could help pinpoint clusters of opioid problems more quickly than traditional methods do

Pass-Through of a Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) at the Philadelphia International Airport - Thirty-six days after the Philadelphia tax on SSBs was levied on beverage distributors, stores subject to the tax in the Philadelphia airport raised their prices of SSBs by 93% of the tax.

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Pass-Through of a Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) at the Philadelphia International Airport - Thirty-six days after the Philadelphia tax on SSBs was levied on beverage distributors, stores subject to the tax in the Philadelphia airport raised their prices of SSBs by 93% of the tax.

New Molecule Shows Promise in HIV Vaccine Design - Vaccine candidate spurs animals to produce antibodies against protective sugars of multiple HIV strains. When injected into rabbits, the vaccine candidate stimulated antibody responses against the sugar shield in four different HIV strains.

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New Molecule Shows Promise in HIV Vaccine Design - Vaccine candidate spurs animals to produce antibodies against protective sugars of multiple HIV strains. When injected into rabbits, the vaccine candidate stimulated antibody responses against the sugar shield in four different HIV strains.

Science AMA Series: We're the researchers from Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute who recently reported on 'The gut microbiota of healthy aged Chinese is similar to that of the healthy young' and we are here to talk about the study and its implications. AMA!

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We examined over 1000 super-healthy participants in China (http://ift.tt/2yFqNeM). Not an easy task in any country especially when the criteria included no history of diseases! Our research team from Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute found that the microbiota of people in those aged around 100 was very similar to that of people many years younger - in other words, a decline in the microbiota is not necessarily inevitable in the healthy aged population. This raises many questions - can microbes help us age better? Is healthy aging simply reflected in our microbiota? Could we transplant 'young' microbes to ailing elderly? We are a scientific team at the Canadian Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotic Research (http://ift.tt/2gOaL7t) who helped set up the Tiyani Health Sciences Centre where the samples and data for this study were collected. We have ideas on how this study might direct future studies, which we and some members of our team would love to discuss with you and answer any questions you may have.

We'll be back at 11 am ET to answer your questions, ask us anything!

Dr. Greg Gloor (http://ggloor.github.io) is a Professor of Biochemistry at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry who designs robust tools for the analysis of microbiome, metagenome and metatranscriptome experiments using compositional data analysis. Dr. Gloor was the corresponding author and conducted most of the analyses reported in the paper.

Dr. Gregor Reid (http://ift.tt/2ieNkVj) has pioneered probiotic research and applications to human health around the world.

Dr. Jeremy Burton (http://ift.tt/2gOaMbx) is part of the Canadian Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotics Research, holds the Miriam Burnett Chair in Urological Sciences, and is an Assistant Professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Dr. Jean Macklaim is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Greg Gloor’s lab using computational biology and next-generation sequencing to understand the functional relationships between bacterial microbiota and their host/environment

">Science AMA Series: We're the researchers from Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute who recently reported on 'The gut microbiota of healthy aged Chinese is similar to that of the healthy young' and we are here to talk about the study and its implications. AMA!

I am Dan McKinsey, and I am a dark matter hunter from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, AMA!

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I will be available from 11a PT to 12:30p PT to answer your questions about dark matter, the mysterious stuff that makes up an estimated 85 percent of all matter in the universe, and about how we search for it.

My research, before with LUX and now with LUX-ZEPLIN, the next generation of dark matter particle detectors that is under construction at an underground research facility in South Dakota, centers on non-accelerator particle physics, particle astrophysics, and low-temperature physics. In particular, I work on the development, construction, and operation of new detectors using liquid forms of noble gases like xeon, which are useful in looking for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Applications for this research include the search for dark matter interactions with ordinary matter, searches for a process known as neutrinoless double beta decay that can help us understand the matter-antimatter imbalance in the universe, and the measurement of the low-energy solar neutrino flux.

This talk is one of dozens of events that are related to Dark Matter Day, an international celebration of the search for the unseen on October 31st.

">I am Dan McKinsey, and I am a dark matter hunter from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, AMA!

Record surge in atmospheric CO2 in 2016

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Record surge in atmospheric CO2 in 2016

Science AMA Series: I'm David Moreau, a cognitive neuroscientist in Auckland, New Zealand. I do research on how the brain changes in response to different types of training, especially physical exercise, and I’m here today to talk about it. AMA!

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Hi Reddit! I’m David Moreau and I’m a cognitive neuroscientist in the department of Psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. My research focuses on the dynamics and plasticity of cognitive function, that is, how the brain changes and adapts to its environment. Before moving to Auckland in 2014, I’ve worked at Princeton University, New Jersey, where I developed, tested and validated the idea of combining physical and cognitive demands to elicit improvements in brain function. This type of intervention, blending brain training and physical exercise, allows preserving the ecological components of naturalistic activities, and has ramifications both for clinical (e.g. children with neurodevelopmental disorders, adults with dementia and patients in post-stroke recovery) and non-clinical populations.

I’m here to answer questions about a recent paper my group published in the journal eLife (http://ift.tt/2yX3DQM), where we showed that short, intense bursts of exercise can induce meaningful improvements in brain function, or queries related to anything in my area of expertise more broadly. I’ll start answering questions at 3pm EST. AMA!

">Science AMA Series: I'm David Moreau, a cognitive neuroscientist in Auckland, New Zealand. I do research on how the brain changes in response to different types of training, especially physical exercise, and I’m here today to talk about it. AMA!