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Pot and paranoia: Why weed can make you anxious

Someone’s watching you. Or are they? Is your neighbor taking the trash out or trying to get a glimpse in your open door? And is the mail carrier just dropping off bills and letters, or are they snooping into your private correspondence?

While cannabis is supposed to help you chill out, loosen up, and sleep really well, it can also make some consumers anxious and nervous. Many people use marijuana every day without negative effects, and some even experience some mental and physical health benefits, but in some cases it can make others certain someone is after them.

Carrie Cuttler.
Cuttler

“Yes there is evidence that cannabis, particularly acute cannabis intoxication, can cause paranoia,” said Dr. Carrie Cuttler, an assistant professor in the psychology department at Washington State University.

“In a recent (unpublished) study of college students we found that approximately 50% reported experiencing paranoia at least once when intoxicated on cannabis and that they reported experiencing paranoia on approximately 25% of cannabis use sessions,” she wrote in an email.

While researchers still aren’t exactly clear on how marijuana causes paranoia, it appears to be related to THC’s effect on receptors in the brain and is – literally – all in your head.

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The Spokesman Review

Ask Dr. Universe: Where does the universe end?

When you look up at the night sky, it can feel like the universe is a big blanket of stars above you. But unlike a blanket, the universe doesn’t have corners and edges. Far beyond what humans can see, the universe keeps going. As far as humans know, it never stops.

Michael Allen.
Allen

When I saw your question, I went straight to my friend Michael Allen, senior instructor of physics and astronomy at Washington State University.

The universe is bigger than the biggest thing you’ve ever seen. It’s bigger than the biggest thing this cat can imagine. It’s so big that even your question has more than one very big answer.

Allen explained that you can think of the universe kind of like a rubber band. If you look at a rubber band’s flat surface, you can see it has no beginning and no end. It keeps going around and around in a loop.

Imagine you drew dots on that rubber band. If you pull on the rubber band, what happens? The rubber band stretches, and the dots move further apart. The universe is like that. The distance between all its galaxies, planets, and stars is stretching all the time, like dots on a rubber band. It never ends, but it’s also constantly expanding.

Scientists don’t think there is a true edge of the universe. But there’s an end to what humans can see of the universe. This is called the edge of the observable universe. It’s the farthest we can see, based on how we get information from light.

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Dr. Universe

Ask Dr. Universe: Why are bears called bears when they can be called anything else, not just a bear?

You’ve noticed something very important: there’s no natural reason for the words humans use. Any sound could be used to describe a big mammal that eats berries and salmon.

But people who speak English choose “bear.” People who speak Spanish use “oso.” People who speak Maricopa say “maxwet.” They’re all different, but they’re all correct.

Lynn Gordon.
Gordon

That’s what I learned from my friend Lynn Gordon, an associate professor emeritus of linguistics in the English department at Washington State University.

“Why do we call bears ‘bears’?” she said. “Because we’ve agreed to.”

Humans have a unique knack for speech. They talk about things in the past or future. They make up new words. They even say things they’ve never said before (like you did with your excellent question).

To be understood, speakers of a language agree about its rules. This happens very early, when a baby is first learning to talk.

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Dr. Universe

WSU experts explain the origins of the Leap Year

While regarded as one of the world’s most powerful and influential historical figures, Julius Caesar wasn’t an expert on math or the stars above.

With 2020 being a Leap Year—a once-every-four-years manifestation created to deal with our imprecise notion of a year being 365 days—WSU experts looked back on the development of the modern calendar to demonstrate just how far humanity has come in its quest.

Michael Allen.
Allen

Ancient civilizations depended on the cosmos above to guide their decisions, said Michael Allen, a senior instructor in physics and astronomy at WSU.

The need to be prepared for changing seasons and related weather events led to the development of the first calendars, which typically were either solar or lunar-based. Ancient Greeks made a tremendous breakthrough some 2,500 years ago when they calculated the length of a year at 365.25 days.

Nikolaus Overtoom.
Overtoom

Meanwhile, during the Roman Republic, the development of the calendar was a process fraught with upheaval, said Nikolaus Overtoom, a clinical assistant professor in Ancient History at WSU.

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WSU Insider

To help wildlife move, researchers map both natural and legal boundaries

Wildlife need to move to survive: to find food, reproduce and escape wildfires and other hazards. Yet as soon as they leave protected areas like national forests or parks, they often wind up on a landscape that is very fragmented in terms of natural boundaries and human ones.

To help create more corridors for wildlife movement, a team led by Washington State University environmental studies graduate student Amanda Stahl has developed a way to map not only the vegetation but also the types of legal authority governing the landscape. In a paper published online in the journal Conservation Biology on Feb. 14, the researchers apply their new mapping system to the areas next to streams in Okanogan County in northeastern Washington.

Alex Fremier.
Fremier
Amanda Stahl.
Stahl

Stahl and her co-authors, Alexander Fremier, WSU associate professor for the School of the Environment, and University of Idaho Law Professor Barbara Cosens, studied habitat maps and dozens of legal documents applying to Okanogan County stream areas. They developed two weighted scales for each area of land, giving them a rating based on the naturalness and another based on the strength of the legal authority governing it. For example, if there were only voluntary recommendations in place to restore the habitat next to the stream that would be a weaker legal authority rating in comparison to wetlands that are protected through mandatory permitting and reporting under the Clean Water Act.

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Phys.org
WSU Insider
The Daily Evergreen