This 'n' Data

The poll position
Here's what industry folks have been telling us in recent online polls. Be sure to check www.gardencentermagazine.com each week to cast your vote on various pertinent topics.

Here’s one happy bacterium
I was reading a garden magazine when a small article caught my attention. It said, “The bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, can help elevate your mood.” The lead author on the research was Dr. Chris Lowry, who decided to do some testing after learning of prior cancer research that showed patients exposed to M. vaccae had better emotional health, vitality and cognitive functions. It didn’t improve their cancer, just their mood.

As I chatted with Dr. Lowry about his project, I could tell he was on the up and up because he used words like “ubiquitously,” “cytokines” and “serotonin neurons.” I almost needed an interpreter. One thing I understood was what he told me about the tests he conducted—they were performed on mice and showed the bacterium had an antidepressant-like effect on their behavior. Of course, my first question was, “How can you tell if a mouse is depressed?”