SCIENCE AND HEALTH HIGHLIGHTS

February 25, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Dissolving Contact Lenses Could Make Eye Drops Disappear (NPR)
•  Decoy protein stops all tested HIV strains (UT San Diego)
• UK approves 3-person babies (BBC)
• Sunbathers take heed: skin damage continues hours after exposure  (Reuters)
•  Cancer gene therapy advances (U-T)
• AIDS has become top killer of adolescents in Africa (CS Monitor)
• Feeding Babies Foods With Peanuts Appears To Prevent Allergies (NPR)
• When Kids Think Parents Play Favorites, It Can Spell Trouble

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Now cleared for landing at airports: bees (NY Times)
• With Quakes Spiking, Oil Industry Is Under The Microscope In Oklahoma (NPR)
• We have some catching up to do on cyber-security (APM Marketplace)

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

HEALTH

Dissolving Contact Lenses Could Make Eye Drops Disappear (NPR)

 Eye drops are unpleasant, and they don't do a great job of delivering medication to the eye. A superthin wafer that slowly dispenses medication and then dissolves is a promising replacement.

Decoy protein stops all tested HIV strains (UT San Diego)

Scripps Research-led genetic engineering feat jams HIV's infection mechanism.

UK approves 3-person babies (BBC)

The UK has now become the first country to approve laws to allow the creation of babies from three people.

Sunbathers take heed: skin damage continues hours after exposure  (Reuters)

 Here's a warning to sunbathers everywhere. Scientists have found that the skin damage caused by UV rays does not stop once you get out of the sun.

Cancer gene therapy advances (U-T)

 Tough blood cancers defeated by genetically engineered immune cells from the patient. 

AIDS has become top killer of adolescents in Africa (CS Monitor)

Eight health organizations have launched a global campaign to stem the spread of HIV among young adults. Adolescent girls in Sub-Saharan Africa are most affected.

Feeding Babies Foods With Peanuts Appears To Prevent Allergies (NPR)

 Babies who ate the equivalent of about 4 heaping teaspoons of peanut butter weekly were about 80 percent less likely to develop a peanut allergy by their fifth birthday. So finds a landmark new study.

When Kids Think Parents Play Favorites, It Can Spell Trouble

(NPR) -- When children think they're being slighted, it can lead to risky behavior as teenagers, a study finds. Having warm, respectful relationships helps counteract the claim, "You always liked her best!"

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Now cleared for landing at airports: bees (NY Times)

A jet taxied down a nearby runway, the roar of its engines merging with the steady buzz of thousands of wings. His head covered with a beekeeper’s veil, Alexandre Beaudoin lifted a frame out of one of five buzzing hives, each housing about 70,000 bees.

With Quakes Spiking, Oil Industry Is Under The Microscope In Oklahoma (NPR)

 Oklahoma used to have, on average, one or two perceptible earthquakes a year. Now the state is averaging two or three a day

We have some catching up to do on cyber-security (APM Marketplace)

Somewhere between 50 and 200 billion things will be connected soon, he says, and that will take the new crime paradigm to a terrifying level.