HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

January 9, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• ADHD drug tied to heart defect in babies (Reuters)
• For Some With Intellectual Disabilities, Ending Abuse Starts With Sex Ed (NPR)
• Facing Down Flu: 5 Facts To Know Now (NPR)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Cold Casualties: Sharksicles And Frozen Iguanas (NPR)
• How North Carolina's alligators are surviving the cold snap (BBC)
• What You Need to Know About the Big Chip Security Problem (Bloomberg)
• Apple to issue fix for iPhones, Macs at risk from 'Spectre' chip flaw (Reuters)
• I Know Where You've Been: Digital Spying And Divorce In The Smartphone Age (NPR)
• Great Barrier Reef: Warmer seas 'turning turtles female'
• You may not know much about the companies exposing your personal information. But they know a lot about you. (Washington Post)

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

HEALTH

ADHD drug tied to heart defect in babies (Reuters)

Pregnant women who take drugs like Ritalin and Concerta for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely than those who don’t to have babies with heart deformities and other birth defects, a recent study suggests.

For Some With Intellectual Disabilities, Ending Abuse Starts With Sex Ed (NPR)

The high rates of sexual assault among people with intellectual disabilities can make romantic relationships difficult. One class aims to teach them about healthy relationships and sexuality.

Facing Down Flu: 5 Facts To Know Now (NPR)

The nation is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad flu season.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Cold Casualties: Sharksicles And Frozen Iguanas (NPR)

As one no doubt remembers from grade-school science class, reptiles and fish take heat from their environment — when it is warm enough, all is well, but if it gets too cold, you can expect scenes like this.

How North Carolina's alligators are surviving the cold snap (BBC)

The reptiles employ a clever trick when the water they live in freezes over

What You Need to Know About the Big Chip Security Problem (Bloomberg)

Intel Corp. said on Jan. 3 that most of the processors running the world’s computers and smartphones have a feature that makes them susceptible to hacker attacks. The chipmaker, working with partners and rivals, says it has already issued updates to protect most processor products introduced in the past five years, but the news sparked concern about this fundamental building block of the internet, PCs and corporate networks.

Apple to issue fix for iPhones, Macs at risk from 'Spectre' chip flaw (Reuters)

 Apple Inc will release a patch for the Safari web browser on its iPhones, iPads and Macs within days, it said on Thursday, after major chipmakers disclosed flaws that leave nearly every modern computing device vulnerable to hackers.

I Know Where You've Been: Digital Spying And Divorce In The Smartphone Age (NPR)

Digital spy tools like that GPS tracker are changing divorce as we know it. Increasingly, couples are turning to the latest technology to spy on each other as their marriages fall apart, according to dozens of divorce lawyers, investigators and even a leading family court judge whom NPR interviewed. 

Great Barrier Reef: Warmer seas 'turning turtles female'

Green sea turtles' gender is temperature dependent and there are now too many females.

You may not know much about the companies exposing your personal information. But they know a lot about you. (Washington Post)

Alteryx is a data analytics company that makes its money by repackaging data that it has collected from different sources. This week, an analyst from the security firm UpGuard shared that Alteryx had not properly protected detailed information it had collected on 123 million U.S. households….This data leak was discovered by a researcher, and not (as far as we know) by a criminal. But the leak affects about as many people as the massive hack Equifax reported in September, which affected 145.5 million Americans, or nearly every adult.