Cannabis commission takes next step

Georgia’s new Access to Medical Cannabis Commission met for the first time — the next step toward getting cannabis oil to the thousands of people who have been given licenses to use it.

In the first meeting, the seven-member commission agreed to make plans to hire a director, create a website, and hold monthly public meetings across the state.

Despite the board’s pledge to act quickly, patients advocating for medical marijuana said they believe it could take 18 months or more to create regulations, issue licenses and get medicine to patients.

Mice: fat and happy (and healthier)

Let’s say you have some fat mice. You can’t change their diets (you know how they get), but you don’t want them to have all sorts of health issues. What to do? Powdered watermelon supplements, obviously.

10-week-old male laboratory mice were fed either a low-fat or high-fat diet over a 10-week period. Groups of high-fat-fed mice were given watermelon supplements in the form of a powder made from a freeze-dried process.

[…]

Mice that were fed a high-fat diet supplemented with watermelon products had significantly better blood glucose levels than the mice on the high-fat-only diet.

I didn’t know dogs could do that

Exposing kids to dogs early in life might — at least according to a Johns Hopkins study — reduce their risk of getting schizophrenia. Interestingly, it doesn’t affect the odds of bipolar disorder, nor do cats have the same effect. Go figure.

Note: Don’t get the dog from a pet store. Go to a shelter, if for no other reason than the CDC is tracking outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter jejuni linked to store-bought puppies.

That dihydrogen monoxide is dangerous stuff

A new poll of Europeans found that 39 percent of them want to “live in a world where chemical substances don’t exist.”

(Before you start feeling too high and mighty, consider that 25 percent of Americans think the sun revolves around the Earth.)

Yet another microbiome

The gut microbiome is so last year. Washington University researchers have found that the biome in the upper airways of asthma patients is different than in those without asthma. The question: Which way does the cause and effect go? Can changing the upper-airway bacteria treat someone’s asthma?

Building a liver

Brazilian researchers were able to create “mini-livers” — clumps of cells printed with a special 3-D printer that “perform all of the liver’s typical functions, such as producing vital proteins, storing vitamins, and secreting bile, among many others.”

It’s a step closer to being able to print an entire human organ than can serve as an alternative to a traditional transpant.

“Pay someone to slap that cookie out of your hand” would have been our suggestion

“How not to overeat this Christmas – according to science”