NewsBytes

You might have heard that cannabis and cannabinoid products can help people sleep. Data shows one of the top reasons people use cannabis is to help them sleep. But there's a dearth of high-quality research on how medicinal cannabis products actually affect sleep. To find out more, our research team conducted a small pilot study involving 20 people. We wanted to compare how they slept after using a medicinal cannabis product, compared to a placebo. The results of the study, published today in the Journal of Sleep Research, surprised us. We found that a single oral dose of a cannabinoid product decreased total sleep time and the time spent in REM sleep (rapid eye movement, which is when we tend to dream). We didn't observe any change in objective alertness the day after the treatment. Our study is small and only measured the effect of a single dose, so more research is clearly needed. But overall, our findings suggest cannabinoids may acutely influence sleep, primarily by suppressing REM sleep, without noticeable next-day impairment.

In Dubai, your dinner might soon come with a side of source code. WOOHOO, a restaurant that bills itself as "dining in the future", is set to open in September in central Dubai, a stone's throw from the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Food at WOOHOO will be assembled by humans, for now, but everything else - from the menu to ambience to service - will be designed by a culinary large-language-model called "Chef Aiman." Aiman - a portmanteau of "AI" and "man" - is trained on decades of food science research, molecular composition data and over a thousand recipes from cooking traditions around the world, said Ahmet Oytun Cakir, one of WOOHOO's founders.

A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Thursday indicted deposed premier Sheikh Hasina in absentia on charges of crimes against humanity in connection with a deadly crackdown on protesters during the July-August uprising last year. The International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICT-BD) has set August 3 as the date for the trial. The tribunal has “framed the charge against her (Hasina) alongside the home minister of her regime Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and (the then) inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun,” a prosecution lawyer told reporters. If proven guilty, the accused could face the death penalty. According to a UN rights office report, up to 1,400 people were killed between July 15 and August 15 last year as Hasina’s government ordered a security crackdown on protesters.

Class VIII students will now learn about the bravery of the first Param Vir Chakra awardee, Major Somnath Sharma, and the historic Battle of Budgam in their new NCERT English textbook. This has been done, as NCERT stated, to teach "students the values of courage, duty, and patriotism." The new book -- Poorvi -- launched recently, also includes stories about Verghese Kurien, the 'Father of the White Revolution', and Bibha Chowdhuri, India's first female particle physicist, among others. Students will read about the Battle of Budgam and the supreme sacrifice of Major Somnath Sharma in Unit 2 -- Values and Dispositions. "A Tale of Valour: Major Somnath Sharma and The Battle of Badgam" teaches students the values of courage, duty and patriotism, showing how selflessness and commitment to one's country can make a lasting impact," the 'About' section of the book mentions.