A New Blue: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

A cool new color and helpful information for those who indulge in marijuana were among the notable discoveries of the week:

• Chemists Stumble Onto First New Blue in 200 Years: A professor and students at Oregon State inadvertently discovered a striking new shade of blue in the lab while trying to create materials for electronics. It just happens to be the first new blue in two centuries, and they named it after its chemical makeup. Better yet, you'll be able to paint your house with it.
• Researchers Map 97 New Areas of the Brain: It's not quite the leap from an 18th-century atlas to Google Maps, but it's close. Scientists from Washington University in St. Louis have created a new map of the human brain that includes 97 areas never before identified. In fact, they're not even sure what some of them do, but they've got some interesting ideas to explore.

• In Ancient Scottish Prison, Evidence of a Witch Prison: The remains of some 2,000 people lie beneath Scotland's East Kirk of St. Nicholas church, but an iron ring set in the stone pillar of the chapel could link back to a spookier past: the trial and execution of 23 women and one man accused of witchcraft during Aberdeen's "Great Witch Hunt" of 1597. No so-called witches were found at the site, but there's a logical explanation for that.
• Menopause Reversal Makes Women Fertile Again: The classic symptoms of menopause may no longer also signal the end of a woman's fertility thanks to a blood treatment used to heal wounds. Researchers in Greece say they were able to reverse menopause in roughly 30 women, including one who entered menopause at 40 but five years later menstruated again. She may have something else to celebrate in, oh, about nine months.
• Scientists Determine How Much Pot Is in a Joint: Exactly how much marijuana does it take to make a joint? Using nearly a decade's worth of data encompassing 10,628 marijuana transactions per federal arrest data, researchers have concluded the average is 0.32 grams. The data also revealed the average cost of a joint and how many of them an ounce of weed should yield.

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