Mounting research points to health harms from cannabis, THC and CBD use during pregnancy, adolescence and other periods of rapid development

Cannabis is a widely used psychoactive drug worldwide, and its popularity is growing: The U.S. market for recreational cannabis sales could surpass US$72 billion by 2023. As of early 2023,…

Increases in opioid overdoses in Pennsylvania varied by county during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the opioid epidemic, according to our new research, which finds that opioid…

Why it’s hard for the US to cut or even control Medicare spending

President Joe Biden’s 2024 proposed budget includes plans to shore up the finances of Medicare, the federal health insurance program that covers Americans who are 65 and up and some…

Depression too often gets deemed ‘hard to treat’ when medication falls short

A plumber who shows up to fix a leaking toilet with a single tool is not likely to succeed. The same is true if a mental health professional offers only…

Vikings brought animals to England as early as the year 873

Vikings brought horses and dogs to the British Isles from Scandinavia, a new study suggests. A chemical analysis of bone fragments from a cemetery in England provides the first solid…

Mysterious marks on Ice Age cave art may have been a form of record keeping

As far back as roughly 25,000 years ago, Ice Age hunter-gatherers may have jotted down markings to communicate information about the behavior of their prey, a new study finds. These…

These science discoveries from 2022 could be game changers

These reported discoveries from 2022 could be game changers, if only we were sure of the findings. News reports this year left us wondering … Is new physics around the…

Homo naledi may have lit fires in underground caves at least 236,000 years ago

An ancient hominid dubbed Homo naledi may have lit controlled fires in the pitch-dark chambers of an underground cave system, new discoveries hint. Researchers have found remnants of small fireplaces…

Carvings on Australia’s boab trees reveal a generation’s lost history

Brenda Garstone is on the hunt for her heritage. Parts of her cultural inheritance are scattered across the Tanami desert in northwestern Australia, where dozens of ancient boab trees are…

King Tut’s tomb still has secrets to reveal 100 years after its discovery

One hundred years ago, archaeologist Howard Carter stumbled across the tomb of ancient Egypt’s King Tutankhamun. Carter’s life was never the same. Neither was the young pharaoh’s afterlife. Newspapers around…