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Toxins May Affect Epigenetics Through Multiple Generations

We already know that the life experiences of our mothers and fathers can influence the epigenetics in their children. Epigenetics may also be ‘remembered’ through the phenomena known as transgenerational inheritance; so the pesticides your great-granddad may have consumed could actually have influenced your epigenetics.

Michael Skinner portrait.
Michael Skinner

Michael K. Skinner, PhD, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University, looked into this, focusing on a pesticide probably consumed by our great grandparents, DDT. Having already demonstrated that DDT exposure can promote the inheritance of obesity, Skinner and his colleagues looked into this further by analyzing a wide array of epigenetic modifications across the entire genome.

Focusing on the broad changes in epigenetic modifications, Skinner looked at the differential DNA methylation regions (DMRs) and non-coding RNA (ncRNA) to see if such epigenetic marks were altered between mice lineages exposed to DDT and those that were not.

The results show completely different and unique combinations between the generations when compared to control mice, indicating that exposure to DDT can affect the mouse epigenetic signatures.

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What Is Epigenetics

Should You Get High Or Get Still? Meditation Vs. Marijuana For Anxiety Relief

How does cannabis stack up against anxiety treatments that we know are safe and effective (like yoga and meditation)? Let’s take a look at some of the most compelling evidence:

  • Carrie Cuttler.
    Cuttler

    A study by scientists at the Washington State University found that just a couple of puffs of marijuana is enough to lower anxiety and depression for most users. This was one of the first studies to examine the strain-specific effects of cannabis on mood. The researchers concluded that herbal strains high in CBD (a natural anti-inflammatory compound with no psychoactive properties) but low in THC (the compound responsible for marijuana mind-altering effects) had the most beneficial impact on mood. Summarizing the results, assistant professor of psychology, Carrie Cutler, explained that  “one puff of cannabis high in CBD and low in THC was optimal for reducing symptoms of depression, two puffs of any type of cannabis was sufficient to reduce symptoms of anxiety, while ten or more puffs of cannabis high in CBD and high in THC produced the largest reductions in stress.”

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Alternative Daily

Cannabis Now

Jennifer Sherman On Tourism-Based Economy

Jennifer Sherman.As we celebrate National Travel and Tourism Week, we also take a look at the struggles of a tourism-based economy. Jennifer Sherman is associate professor of sociology at Washington State University. Her research looks at the ways in which job loss, poverty, and economic strain affect families, particularly in rural U.S. communities.

She’s author of the book Those who Work, Those who Don’t: Poverty, Morality, and Family in Rural America.

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SDPB Radio

A new gravitational wave observatory in India could challenge what we know about physics

The frontier of human knowledge can be measured in collisions. With the right instruments, you can hear their echoes, from billions of years ago, many light years away.

Sukanta Bose.
Sukanta Bose

Physicists and astronomers are slowly listening to the stories inside these echoes, known as “gravitational waves,” in hopes of learning more about the birth of the universe and the nature of our reality. One of these researchers is Washington State University physics professor Sukanta Bose, who is helping to develop a new gravitational wave observatory center in India through a U.S. partnership. He is tasked with further developing the country’s scientific community by using astronomical research with the help of LIGO facilities (or Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory).

LIGO began as a joint project between MIT and Caltech, funded by the National Science Foundation, but has since grown into the international LIGO Science Collaboration. Its two facilities are located in Hanford, Washington, about three hours southwest of Spokane, and in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. The new project, expected to be complete in 2024, is another node in an ongoing network of gravitational wave detectors around the world.

“Unlike optical observatories, we don’t care about the quality of the night sky,” Bose tells the Inlander from India. “The sites that we choose can have cloud cover.” Instead, the detectors rely on sound, or rather, vibrations, he says.

When two major astral bodies collide, they cause ripples in the fabric of space-time, a model of our universe that combines the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time. Albert Einstein predicted these rippling waves in his theory on general relativity in 1915, and in the last few years astronomers have been able to detect them.

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The Inlander

Balancing Act: Women’s voices are largely missing from newspaper letters to the editor

A majority of letters to the editor that appear in newspapers are written by men, which means a sizable chunk of the nation isn’t taking part in the national conversation.

Joyce Ehrlinger.
Joyce Ehrlinger

Joyce Ehrlinger, assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University, said that women are hesitant to position themselves as experts.

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Bristol Herald Courier