HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

August 2, 2017 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Senate panel advances measures to advance medical marijuana (The Hill)
• Obamacare repeal is dead for now. What could that mean for you?  (USA Today)
• Study: CTE Found in Nearly All Donated NFL Player Brains (NPR)
• Sperm count drop 'could make humans extinct' (BBC)
• Controversial milestone: Scientists genetically modify human embryos for first time, reports say (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• There's Great News — And Grim News — in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS (NPR)
• 'Mind-blowing' cows hold clue to beating HIV (BBC)
• Injections ‘next revolution’ in HIV - study (BBC)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• How Western spyware is used to shut down Arab rights activists (CS Monitor)
• Fukushima disaster: Robot finds possible melted nuclear fuel (BBC)
• Scientists dim sunlight, suck up carbon dioxide to cool planet (Reuters)
• Is it a Good Idea to Pay Villagers Not to Chop Down Trees? (NPR)
• Revolutionary gene drive works in lab, but will it succeed in the wild? (SDUT)
• Heartland Institute’s `Six reasons to be a climate-change skeptic’ are six demonstrable falsehoods (Forbes)
• Apple 'pulls 60 VPNs from China App Store' (BBC)
• Putin bans VPNs in web browsing crackdown (BBC)
• It is easy to expose users' secret web habits, say researchers (BBC)
• Snopes’ trouble is real news (KPBS)
• How, and Why, Some Farmers Are Bringing Livestock Back to Prairie (NPR)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down. 

HEALTH

Senate panel advances measures to advance medical marijuana (The Hill)

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to a budget bill on Thursday to protect medical marijuana programs from federal interference in states that have legalized the drug for medical use.

Obamacare repeal is dead for now. What could that mean for you?  (USA Today)

The Senate’s effort to repeal and replace Obamacare collapsed early Friday morning, and President Trump has already replied that he is ready to “let Obamacare implode” and then reopen negotiations. Absent some kind of legislation, what is going to happen to the Affordable Care Act? Here's what the death of "repeal and replace" could mean for you.

Study: CTE Found in Nearly All Donated NFL Player Brains (NPR)

An updated study published Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association on football players and the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy found that 110 out of 111 brains of those who played in the NFL had CTE.

Sperm count drop 'could make humans extinct' (BBC)

Humans could become extinct if sperm counts in men continue to fall at current rates, a doctor has warned. Researchers assessing the results of nearly 200 studies say sperm counts among men from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, seem to have halved in less than 40 years.

Controversial milestone: Scientists genetically modify human embryos for first time, reports say (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A team of researchers that includes a scientist from the Salk Institute in La Jolla has created the first genetically modified human embryos, the MIT Technology Review reported this week.

There's Great News — and Grim News — in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS (NPR)

Fewer people are dying in traditional epidemic hot spots. But HIV infection and AIDS death rates are increasing in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

'Mind-blowing' cows hold clue to beating HIV(BBC)

The secret to an HIV vaccine may be in a cow's tummy, US researchers say.

Injections ‘next revolution’ in HIV - study (BBC)

The ''next revolution" in HIV could see daily drugs replaced with just six doses a year, say scientists.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

How Western spyware is being used to shut down Arab rights activists (CS Monitor)

Since the Arab Spring seven years ago, autocratic regimes have spent millions on Western firms' technology to steal activists' contacts, listen in on their conversations, and more.

Fukushima disaster: Robot finds possible melted nuclear fuel (BBC)

An underwater robot spotted the lava-like rocks inside a reactor of Japan's destroyed nuclear plant. If confirmed, it would be a major milestone in the clear-up operation.

Scientists dim sunlight, suck up carbon dioxide to cool planet (Reuters)

Scientists are sucking carbon dioxide from the air with giant fans and preparing to release chemicals from a balloon to dim the sun's rays as part of a climate engineering push to cool the planet.

Is it a Good Idea to Pay Villagers Not to Chop Down Trees? (NPR)

Governments dole out millions each year. Researchers debate whether the payouts actually work. A new study from Uganda offers some answers.

Revolutionary gene drive works in lab, but will it succeed in the wild? (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Gene drive — the technology developed by UC San Diego scientists to rapidly push targeted genetic changes into a population — got a push last week with a $14.9 million federal grant to develop defenses against mosquito-borne diseases threatening the United States.

Heartland Institute’s `Six reasons to be a climate-change skeptic’ are six demonstrable falsehoods (Forbes)

Earlier this week, Justin Haskins (the Executive Editor of the Heartland Institute) wrote a piece enumerating the six biggest reasons he's a climate-change skeptic. But are any of these reasons scientifically valid? Let's take a look at the science behind all six of them and see.

Apple 'pulls 60 VPNs from China App Store' (BBC)

The creators of several Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have criticised Apple's decision to remove their products from its App Store in China.

Putin bans VPNs in web browsing crackdown (BBC)

The move is part of efforts to stop Russians accessing banned websites.

It is easy to expose users' secret web habits, say researchers (BBC)

Two German researchers say they have exposed the porn-browsing habits of a judge, a cyber-crime investigation and the drug preferences of a politician.  The pair obtained huge amounts of information about the browsing habits of three million German citizens from companies that gather "clickstreams".  These are detailed records of everywhere that people go online.

Snopes’ trouble is real news (KPBS)

Snopes is in a legal dispute with its website developer, Proper Media, over control of the site, accusing it of withholding all its advertising revenue. Proper Media, in turn, has accused Snopes of gross mismanagement.  Snopes raised more than $600,000 in one day through a GoFundMe account, hoping to stay in business at least until its first court hearing next Friday.

How, and Why, Some Farmers Are Bringing Livestock Back to the Prairie (NPR)

Some farmers are grazing different types of animals on the same land in a carefully controlled pattern, which ideally will enhance animal welfare and also help regenerate the landscape.