Prenatal exposure

New research suggests a warning is in order for pregnant women who take CBD, a non-psychoactive compound found in marijuana and hemp plants. While CBD may be able to alleviate the nausea associated with morning sickness, a study from scientists at the University of Colorado indicates that a mother’s CBD use during pregnancy could ­disrupt her baby’s brain development.

In the study, which examined the effects of CBD in mice, pregnant mice ingested either sunflower oil laced with CBD oil or sunflower oil alone. CBD-exposed offspring demonstrated neural impairments in a sex-specific manner: In females, electric signal recordings showed significantly decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region important to problem-solving, emotional regulation, concentration, and memory.

Co-author Emily Bates said that while it’s known that CBD crosses the placenta and accumulates in the fetal brain, no one previously knew how it affected fetal brain development. Her team next wants to determine whether the timing or dosage of CBD during pregnancy influences severity and ­frequency of fetal impairments. The study was published July 11 in Molecular Psychiatry.

Scent of a woman

Don’t tell Sherlock Holmes, but hand odor can reveal a person’s sex. Using mass spectrometry, a team of chemists recently analyzed volatile scent compounds on the palms of 60 individuals, ultimately predicting each person’s sex with over 96 percent accuracy. Dogs can match a person to their scent profile with only 80-90 percent accuracy. The study, published July 5 in PLOS One, could help law enforcement officials track down criminals —H.F.

Will China man the moon?

China on July 12 announced new details about its plan to put astronauts on the moon by 2030. According to the China Manned Space Agency, the country will use two separate rockets in its efforts to become the second nation ever to land humans on the moon.

One rocket will transport the lunar lander, and the other will carry the Chinese astronauts. The double-rocket plan is a solution to China’s failed attempts at developing a single rocket powerful enough to launch both astronauts and lander.

The Communist country has intensified its space program in recent years, becoming in 2021 the second country (after the United States) to land a rover on Mars successfully. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson expressed concerns ­earlier this year that a space race with China could result in China ­laying claim to resource-rich locations on the moon. —H.F.