Smokeless Cannabis Device Less Toxic
A smokeless cannabis-vaporizing device, tested by UC San Francisco researchers, delivers the substance’s therapeutic effects without smoking’s harmful toxins.
“”We showed in a recent paper … that smoked cannabis can alleviate the chronic pain caused by HIV-related neuropathy, but a concern was expressed that smoking cannabis was not safe,”” study lead author and UCSD professor of clinical medicine Donald I. Abrams said. “”This study demonstrates an alternative method that gives patients the same effects and allows controlled dosing but without inhalation of the toxic products in smoke.””
Researchers studied the effectiveness of the device, which heats cannabis to a temperature just short of combustion. The patients, who rated the “”high”” experienced from both smoking and vaporization, did not report a significant difference between the methods.
Furthermore, “”patients preferred vaporization to smoking, choosing the route of delivery with the fewest side effects and greatest efficiency,”” study co-author Neal L. Benowitz said.
UC Berkeley Team Reports 28 New Planets
The world’s largest team of “”planet hunters”” at UC Berkeley announced the discovery of 28 new planets outside of our solar system.
The planets are among 37 new substellar objects, seven of which are confirmed brown dwarfs – failed stars that are massive in size.
Two are “”borderline,”” either extremely large gaseous planets or small brown dwarfs.
One exoplanet was described by the team as “”extraordinarily rich,”” with a mass at least 22 times that of Earth’s, and “”the interior structure of a hybrid super-Earth/Neptune,”” according to UC Berkeley professor of astronomy Geoffrey Marcy.
UC Davis Researchers Encounter Black Bear
While conducting an eggmass study in the Trinity Alps Wilderness, UC Davis entomologists had an unexpected encounter with a young black bear.
“”The bear was there for 20 or 30 minutes, seemingly disinterested in us,”” fisheries major Max Joseph said. “”He was mostly rooting around and foraging.””
The bear, described by mosquito control researcher Sharon Lawler as a “”yearling”” and “”wary but calm,”” is an unusual sighting for researchers at the Lawler Lab, who are studying how trout affect aquatic insects and native amphibians, especially the declining Cascades frog.
Fortunately, the entomologists never travel alone or approach potentially dangerous animals.
“”Of course, with wild mammals there is always a slight risk of rabies or other infectious disease,”” Lawler said. “”We try to disturb animals as little as possible as part of the wilderness ethic, although we do have to tag frogs and snakes for research.””
Joseph said he has seen a wide variety of wildlife, including turkey vultures and woodpeckers, but this is the first bear encounter of the season.
Math Teachers in Asia More Effective
A UC Irvine researcher discovered that, compared to math teachers in Hong Kong and Japan, teachers in the United States have fewer means of support that could benefit students, which could be the reason why U.S. students perform poorer than Asian students on international math tests.
The study found that American teachers do not utilize mental and visual imagery or gestures encouraging active reasoning as often as teachers in Hong Kong and Japan.
Researchers speculate that this type of cognitive support is vital to information retention.
“”There is no guarantee that without these cues, the students are actually benefiting from analogies and thinking about math in a comparative way,”” assistant professor of education and co-author of the study Lindsey Richland said.
The “”teaching gap”” may be influenced by different cultural approaches to relational reasoning, but the authors concluded that U.S. math teachers could improve their instruction techniques to secure analogy comprehension.
