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Now here's today's news, discerned differently.

A patient who goes by the nickname of Panchancho has not been able to speak since 2003,

when he was paralyzed at the age of 20 by a severe stroke following a terrible car crash. Now

researchers have tapped into the speech areas of his brain, allowing him to produce words

and sentences simply by trying

to say them.

His first recognizable sentence was, My family is outside.

This groundbreaking achievement marks a step toward technology that may one day help us speak

by thinking.

In other medical news, scientists have used the gene editing technology

known as CRISPR to successfully block the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in affected human cells.

This tool could eventually prevent people who contract COVID-19 from becoming seriously ill, alleviating pressure on hospitals and care

systems. That's the good news. Here's the bad news. Drug overdose deaths in 2020 hit the

highest number ever recorded. Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, explained the increase.

This has been an incredibly uncertain and stressful time for many people, and we are seeing an increase in drug consumption,

difficulty in accessing life-saving treatments for substance abuse disorders, and a tragic rise in overdose deaths.

We live in a time of unprecedented scientific advances coupled with perpetual personal challenges.

This is because humans can alter our circumstances, but not our fallen condition.

You and I are just as tempted to be our own God,

as we're the first humans. Our children live in a world just as threatening as the first

...