Pot-smoking cows could stop BSE, maybe/Scientists prove wine buffs are talking rubbish

September 18, 2007

Pot-smoking cows could stop BSE, maybe

September 17, 2007 10:24am

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22430980-23109,00.html?from=mostpop

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A NEW Zealand pro-cannabis groups says it has scientific evidence that cannabis can stop the development of mad cow disease.

It was not clear whether the findings applied to both cows and humans.

The National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml) said a French study showed cannabidiol might be effective in preventing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease, the New Zealand Press Association reported tpday.

Scientists at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France found cannabidiol - a non-psychoactive ingredient - may prevent the development of prion diseases (progressive neurodegenerative disorders), the most well known of which is BSE, Norml said.

Researchers found cannabidiol inhibited the accumulation of prion proteins in infected mice and sheep.

Norml spokesman Chris Fowlie said the discovery added to the scientific evidence supporting a bill from a New Zealand Greens MP to legalise the medicinal use of cannabis.

"(It) should be supported by any MP with a clear head. Unfortunately most politicians act like mad cows whenever cannabis is mentioned," Mr Fowlie said.

Scientists prove wine buffs are talking rubbish http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/09/17/scibuff117.xmlBy Roger Highfield, Science Editor

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/09/2007

Some refer to the smell of fruit, hay and ripe apricots. Others to horse blankets, barnyard funk, pencil shavings and leather, just to name a few of the more peculiar descriptions of the odour of wine.

But now there is scientific evidence to suggest that wine buffs may just be talking rubbish, or at least that they greatly overestimate their own ability to pin down a wine's particular aroma.

Today a US team publishes hard evidence that people smell the world differently because of their genes.

The findings suggest that those who claim to pick up rich aromas from fine wines may owe more to genetics than to any great expertise.

The basis of the research, by scientists at Rockefeller University in New York and published today in the journal Nature, is a study of how 400 people reacted to more than 60 smells.

It reveals that small changes in a single gene – identified as OR7D4 – can cause a person to perceive a key ingredient of male body odour and urine as smelling like urine or, most remarkably, vanilla.

Although it has long been suspected that the sensing of body odour is genetically determined, this study is the first to identify variations in a single gene that account for a large part of why people perceive it so differently.

The Telegraph's wine buff, Jonathan Ray, commented: "Shock horror! So there is scientific proof that wine lovers talk rubbish. Doesn't everyone after a glass or two?

"How does one describe what scrambled eggs tastes like, or smoke smells like, without comparing them to something else? So it is that we wine lovers might describe a wine as tasting of truffles, leather, game and rotting veg. Well, dammit, that's what old red burgundy often resembles. It certainly doesn't taste of grapes."