HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

October 31, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news each week that could impact your health and our future.

• Obamacare Enrollment Period Extended 6 Weeks (NPR)
• VIDEO: How to make your TV a touchscreen (BBC)  
• The power grid may determine whether we can kick our carbon habit (Denver Post opinion)
• You Can Keep Your Health Insurance Under Obamacare? Not So Much.
• Widespread Plague In Wildlife Threatens Western Ecosystems
• Fusion milestone passed at US lab (BBC)
• Alzheimer’s Breakthrough hailed as turning point (BBC)
• 30,000 may carry human form of mad cow (CNN)

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

Obamacare Enrollment Period Extended 6 Weeks (NPR)

 Following a problem-plagued launch of the HealthCare.gov website, the White House on Monday officially announced a six-week extension to sign up for coverage under the law's individual mandate.

VIDEO: How to make your TV a touchscreen (BBC)  

Cutting edge technology in Singapore which could turn your big screen into a touchscreen for just $75. 

The power grid may determine whether we can kick our carbon habit (Denver Post opinion)

Minutes before 4 p.m. on a sizzling September day two years ago, right at the time when they were most needed, San Diego's air conditioners suddenly died.

You Can Keep Your Health Insurance Under Obamacare? Not So Much.

President Obama (in)famously said, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan" under the Affordable Care Act. As it turns out, not so much. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, it turns out, are receiving letters telling them that their existing coverage just isn't good enough to satisfy the strict rquirements of the Obamacare law, and that they'll have to sign up for new policies. Those new policies come with new stipulations, and new price tags. Which is to say, it doesn't matter if you like your health care plan, since you probably can't keep it.

Widespread Plague In Wildlife Threatens Western Ecosystems

For most of us, plague is something that maybe we read about in history books. In the 14th Century, it wiped out half of Europe's population. But the bacteria is busy killing wildlife now in the American West. By studying small mammals scientists have learned that plague is far more pervasive a killer than anyone thought.

Fusion milestone passed at US lab (BBC)

Researchers at a US lab have passed a crucial milestone on the way to their ultimate goal of achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion.

Alzheimer’s Breakthrough hailed as turning point (BBC)

The discovery of the first chemical to prevent the death of brain tissue in a neurodegenerative disease has been hailed as the "turning point" in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. More work is needed to develop a drug that could be taken by patients. But scientists say a resulting medicine could treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and other diseases. In tests on mice, the Medical Research Council showed all brain cell death from prion disease could be prevented.

30,000 may carry human form of mad cow (CNN)

Up to 30,000 people in Britain may be silent carriers of the human form of mad cow disease, according to new research published Tuesday.