BacteriaA senior from Garnet Valley High School in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania earned a national science award recently for a project to determine the harmful effects (if any) of vaping.
Natalia Orlovsky tested the effects of e-cig liquids on bacteria and human cells. She also tested nicotine. She discovered that the e-cig liquid itself caused cells to produce chemicals associated with stress. That was true even when there was no nicotine present. While this research was only done in cells, not people, the young scientist notes, “The fact that it could apply to people is reason to do more research. Vaping may indeed be safer than cigarettes, but that doesn’t mean its harmless.”
There are objects Americans buy because they need them, and objects Americans buy because they let them be a certain kind of person. A perfectly functional version exists, usually for a fraction of the price. But the other version comes with a name, a story, and a reason to pay extra.
Walk into any warehouse rave, desert gathering, or rooftop after-hours in 2026, and you’ll feel it: the psychedelic underground is back, louder, weirder, and far more self-aware than its ‘60s predecessor ever imagined.
In 62 BC, Julius Caesar announced his plan to divorce his second wife, Pompeia. She had been involved in an ancient Roman sex scandal, accused of flirting with another man during a women-only religious event.
ile Mike Wittenberg sat in a Dominican Republic prison, a thought occurred to him. “I could appreciate flushing the toilet,” he said. “When you’re in a third-world jail without running water 23.5 hours a day, you learn to appreciate the little things.”
When it comes to marketing, cannabis is different from every other consumer good available today. If sales start to dip in traditional retail, you can simply increase ad spending. However, with companies like Google, Meta, and even traditional broadcasters placing strict bans or severe limitations on cannabis advertising, the standard “pay-to-play” system just doesn’t work.
It feels impossible sometimes to escape the more ridiculousness aspects of pop culture—like pickleball, whatever a Labubu is, and the inevitable media frenzy surrounding Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's upcoming wedding. Thankfully, there’s at least one trend that’s still on the rise that I can get behind, which is kratom.
When Adelia Carrillo (Fakhri) and Parisa Rad first sat down for brunch in Phoenix, AZ, with a few other women in the cannabis industry, they had no idea how that moment would change the trajectory of their lives. “The energy in that room was transformative,” Adelia says.
