A new study published in Current Alzheimer Research claims that marijuana doesn't temper or reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease and may even cause harm. The findings could lower expectations about the benefits of medical marijuana in combating various cognitive diseases and help redirect future research to more promising therapeutics.

Previous studies using animal models showed that HU210, a synthetic form of the compounds found in marijuana, reduced the toxicity of plaques and promoted the growth of new neurons. Those studies used rats carrying amyloid protein, the toxin that forms plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's victims.

Family meals, adequate sleep, and limited TV time may reduce obesity prevelance among preschoolers by almost 40 percent, according to a study in the March Issue of Pediatrics. The new research is the first to assess the combination of all three routines with obesity prevalence in a national sample of preschoolers.

Each routine on its own was associated with lower obesity, and more routines translated to lower obesity prevalence among 4-year-olds, according to the analysis. The link between the routines and lower obesity prevalence was also seen in children with and without other risk factors for obesity.

Researchers studying the relationship between commercial beer production methods and the resulting silicon content say that beer is a rich source of dietary silicon (a key ingredient for increasing bone mineral density) and may help prevent osteoporosis.  The study appears in the February issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

 Religion is a hotly debated topic both among scholars and the general public, and a new paper authored by researchers from the University of Helsinki and Harvard University is only likely to up the level controversy surrounding the subject. Published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the study suggests that intuitive judgments of right and wrong seem to operate independently of explicit religious commitments.

According to survey results on correlates of HPV vaccine use, a parent's existing health habits or behaviors, like cigarette smoking, may influence the likelihood that they will have their daughters vaccinated against HPV. Researchers who conducted the survey say the link may be explained by the fact that parents who are former or current smokers have a heightened awareness of cancer and its related risks. Results of the survey are published in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Researchers analyzing recent data from the SPOT 5 and ASTER satellites say that previous studies have largely overestimated mass loss from Alaskan glaciers over the past 40 years. Writing in a recent issue of Nature Geoscience, the team suggests that mass loss in these glaciers contributed 0.12 mm/year to sea-level rise between 1962 and 2006, rather than 0.17 mm/year as previously estimated.

The new estimate was obtained by comparing recent topographies, derived from Spot 5-HRS (SPIRIT project with maps from the 1950-60s, which enabled loss from three quarters of the Alaskan glaciers to be measured.

A new report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention suggests that individuals who consume two or more sodas per week face an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer by nearly twofold compared to individuals who do not consume soft drinks.

Researchers followed 60,524 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study for 14 years. During that time, there were 140 pancreatic cancer cases. Those who consumed two or more soft drinks per week (averaging five per week) had an 87 percent increased risk compared with individuals who did not. No association was seen between fruit juice consumption and pancreatic cancer.

A study of the phenomenon known as loss aversion in two patients with lesions to the amygdala, a region deep within the brain involved in emotions and decision-making, may help explain how we make decisions and what makes us dislike the thought of losing money.

 Loss aversion describes the avoidance of choices which can lead to losses, even when accompanied by equal or much larger gains . Examples in the everyday life include how we make a decision on whether to proceed with an operation: the more serious the potential complications from the operation – even if the risk is low compared to the chances of success – the less likely we would be to proceed.

Using graphene, Swedish and American researchers say they have succeeded in producing a new type of lighting component which they claim will be inexpensive to produce and can be fully recycled. The invention was published in ACS Nano by scientists at Linköping University and Umeå University, in Sweden, and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.