Kind reader, I have what I like to call a finely tuned bullshit detector, but this one slipped right past it. Last week, we reported that scientists discovered a new type of cannabis in Australia. Sadly, even I got duped by this one. It’s a total hoax. I guess it goes to show that you can’t always believe everything you read on the Internet.

Sad to report for all of our pot-loving friends out there, there won’t be an exotic new type of cannabis headed for your bong any time soon. Of course, with the species of cannabis that we know for sure exist, the opportunity to find new medicinal and utilitarian uses for the plant is still very much present, and we look forward to reporting actual advances as they happen, not hoaxes.

According to a new study published in the journal Pharmacology and Behavior, chemicals within cannabis have antioxidant properties that protect the brain’s cells from damage caused by excessive consumption of alcohol.  This study outlines how excessive alcohol consumption results in neuro-degeneration, as well as a variety of behavioral and cognitive impairments. But the delivery of cannabidiol transdermally has shown promising in treating that degeneration. The study concludes that CBD transdermal treatments are effective for this.

The results of this study justify further preclinical development of transdermal CBD for the treatment of alcohol-induced neuro-degeneration. It has been suggested that the neuroprotective effects of CBD observed during binge alcohol induced neurodegeneration are due to its high antioxidant capacity, but more research is needed.

Are you ready to see the largest picture ever taken? For your information, it’s a whopping 1.5 billion pixel image (69,536 x 22,230) and on January 5th, NASA released an image of the Andromeda galaxy, our closest galactic neighbor, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The final image is composed of 411 Hubble images, and takes you through 100 million stars and travels over 40,000 light years! Well, a section of it does anyway.

After watching this fly-through video created by YouTuber daveachuk, I felt extremely tiny and insignificant… make sure you stick around and watch it till the end… seriously!

Well done, NASA. Our mind has been blown.

Year after year, the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies that protect global as well as individual health, comes out with a list of the top foods to buy organic, due to their exposure to chemicals, and the top foods you can buy conventionally grown due to the lower levels of exposure. Of course, if you can, always buy organic. We’re providing you this list because we know how hard it can be to buy organic all the time.

Here are the “dirtiest” fruits and veggies you should definitely buy organic:

• Apples
• Grapes
• Strawberries
• Celery
• Peaches
• Spinach
• Sweet bell peppers
• Imported nectarines...

A few years ago, Bisphenol A, or BPA, came under fire. BPA is a carbon-based synthetic compound belonging to a group of diphenylmethane derivatives. It’s often employed to make certain types of plastics and epoxy resins. It’s no secret that consuming BPA is terrible for you. The first evidence that it may cause harm to your health came from a study conducted 85 years ago. Over the decades, BPA was tied to obesity, neurological disorders, endocrine disruption, estrogenicity and other problems. And so the public rightfully demanded BPA-free products, like water bottles and cans.

But the go-to chemical to replace BPA in plastic might be just as harmful, if not more so, than BPA itself. Or at least according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.