HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

May 4, 2016 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• What's Good For The Heart Is Good For The Brain (NPR)
• Critical Drugs For Hospital ERs Remain In Short Supply (NPR)
• Speedy eye-tracking device seeks to detect concussions  (Reuters)
• A Concussion Can Lead To Sleep Problems That Last For Years (NPR)
• Ruling May Help Patients Keep More Of The Winnings When They Sue (NPR)
• Puerto Rico reports 1st US Zika-related death amid outbreak (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• The Full-Fat Paradox: Dairy Fat Linked To Lower Diabetes Risk (NPR)
• Can An Online Game Help Create A Better Test For Tuberculosis?(NPR)
• New study uses Fitbit to test if weight loss can prevent breast cancer recurrence (Business Wire Health Spot)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Solar powered plane successfully crosses Pacific Ocean, lands in California (ABC)
• A Researcher Just Accidentally Developed A Battery That Could Last A Lifetime (IFL Science)
• How secure is your data? Take our quiz and find out (CS Monitor)
• Mitsubishi Says It Tricked Fuel Mileage Tests On Some Cars (NPR)
• Pop went the weasel and down went the Large Hadron Collider (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Massive secret lake and canyons found deep beneath Antarctic ice (CS Monitor)
• Half of Western European men descended from one Bronze Age ‘king’(Telegraph)
• How you can help penguins by knitting sweaters for them (CS Monitor)
• China-made drone to use AI to track, film people (Malaya Chronicles)
• Busted? 'Textalyzer' device could detect texting and driving (CS Monitor)
• SpaceX undercut ULA rocket launch pricing by 40 percent: U.S. Air Force (Reuters)

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

HEALTH

What's Good For the Heart Is Good For the Brain (NPR)

Choosing a heart-healthy lifestyle can help protect your brain as you age, research suggests. And it's not just memory skills that benefit. Problem-solving abilities and judgment are preserved, too.

Critical Drugs For Hospital ERs Remain In Short Supply (NPR)

The shortages for hospital emergency rooms have persisted even after Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration more power in 2012 to respond when drug supplies are low.

Speedy eye-tracking device seeks to detect concussions  (Reuters)

A newly-approved device using infrared cameras to track eye movements promises to help detect concussions in one minute, offering a speedy insight into whether athletes have sustained the injury.

A Concussion Can Lead To Sleep Problems That Last For Years (NPR)

Eighteen months after a concussion or other traumatic brain injury, two-thirds of the patients in a recent study were still sleepy during the day. And most were unaware of their symptoms.

Ruling May Help Patients Keep More of the Winnings When They Sue (NPR)

When someone's been hurt and gets cash as part of a legal decision, health plans routinely demand to be reimbursed for medical costs they covered. But a Supreme Court ruling may hinder that strategy.

Puerto Rico reports 1st US Zika-related death amid outbreak (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Puerto Rico announced Friday that it has recorded the first Zika-related U.S. death amid an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus in the U.S. territory.

The Full-Fat Paradox: Dairy Fat Linked To Lower Diabetes Risk (NPR)

The new findings add to the evidence suggesting that full-fat dairy may have protective effects — both in cutting the risk of diabetes and in helping people control body weight.

Can An Online Game Help Create A Better Test For Tuberculosis?(NPR)

In a vote of confidence for citizen science, researchers who created an online RNA-folding game launched the project's first challenge aimed at a disease — creating a better tuberculosis test.

New study uses Fitbit to test if weight loss can prevent breast cancer recurrence (Business Wire Health Spot)

The Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) study will enroll nearly 3,200 overweight and obese women with early stage breast cancer.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Solar powered plane successfully crosses Pacific Ocean, lands in California (ABC)

A solar-powered airplane's journey across the Pacific Ocean ended Saturday with a successful landing in Mountain View, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Swiss aeronaut Bertrand Piccard landed the Solar Impulse 2 at Moffett Airfield at 11:45 p.m. PST after 62 hours of flying without fuel.

A Researcher Just Accidentally Developed a Battery That Could Last a Lifetime (IFL Science)

Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have invented a nanowire-based battery that can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times, a significant leap towards a battery that doesn’t require replacing.

How secure is your data? Take our quiz and find out (CS Monitor)

Do you use Tor browser, two-factor authentication, or a VPN? Do you know what those things are? With data breaches commonplace and digital surveillance on the rise, there's no better time to find out if your own private information is shielded from prying eyes. Take our quiz designed in partnership with the Mozilla Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology to find out how to secure yourself against a growing number of threats online.

Mitsubishi Says It Tricked Fuel Mileage Tests on Some Cars (NPR)

Car maker Mitsubishi Motors says "improper conduct" resulted in 625,000 of its vehicles getting inflated gas mileage ratings, in a scandal that's centered on mini-cars made for Japan's market.

Pop went the weasel and down went the Large Hadron Collider (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Spokesman Arnaud Marsollier says the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN outside of Geneva, has suspended operations because a weasel invaded a transformer that helps power the machine and set off an electrical outage on Friday.

Massive secret lake and canyons found deep beneath Antarctic ice (CS Monitor)

New data could confirm the existence of a large lake and canyon system running beneath part of Antarctica.

Half of Western European men descended from one Bronze Age ‘king’ (Telegraph)

The team used the data to build a tree of the 1200 Y chromosomes. It shows how they are all related to one another. As expected, they all descend from a single man who lived approximately 190,000 years ago.

How you can help penguins by knitting sweaters for them (CS Monitor)

A campaign to knit sweaters for penguins helped the birds survive an oil spill, but conservationists have found numerous creative ways to help wildlife at home. 

China-made drone to use AI to track, film people (Malaya Chronicles)

The rise of intelligent machines could become literal this year, when a Chinese startup begins selling a camera drone that can track and film people and objects on sight…. The autonomous flying gadget picks out individuals and shadows them on command, capturing every movement with 4K videos and photos via a 13-megapixel camera.

Busted? 'Textalyzer' device could detect texting and driving (CS Monitor)

New York legislators are considering a bill that would allow police officers to use a Textalyzer device, the cell phone equivalent of a breathalyzer. 

SpaceX undercut ULA rocket launch pricing by 40 percent: U.S. Air Force (Reuters)

The U.S. Air Force will save 40 percent by buying a GPS satellite launch from Elon Musk’s SpaceX compared with what United Launch Alliance has been charging, the head of the Space and Missile Systems Center said on Thursday.