Decades’ worth of man-made junk is cluttering up Earth’s orbit, posing a threat to spaceflight and the satellites we rely on for weather reports, air travel and global communications. More than 750,000 fragments larger than a centimeter are already thought …
Month: April 2017
The United Nations’ World Health Organization says millions of lives could be saved if people infected with viral hepatitis were tested and treated for these potentially fatal diseases. New WHO data from the just released Hepatitis 2017 report show an …
As economic and political leaders gather in Washington for the annual spring meetings of the World bank and International Monetary Fund — new warnings Thursday about the impact of rapid change on the global economy. At issue, the pace of …
Catch a wave, and you’re sitting on top of the world. You’re also sitting on top of a unique biome. What does that do to our bodies? One surfer, who is also a chemistry graduate student, is trying to find …
An award-winning documentary has captured the innovative ways farmers and others are trying to make the planet a greener, more sustainable place. Winner of the 2016 César for best documentary, the French equivalent of an Oscar, Tomorrow charts a road …
A Bavarian startup is developing a five-seat “flying taxi” after successful test flights over Germany of a smaller version of the electric jet, the company said Thursday. Munich-based Lilium, backed by investors who include Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, said the …
U.S. officials are reviewing Venezuela’s seizure of General Motors’ assets in the country, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday. “We are reviewing the details of the case,” Toner said in a statement, saying the United States hoped to …
They are homely, buck-toothed, pink, nearly hairless and just plain weird, but one of the many odd traits of rodents called naked mole-rats that live in subterranean bliss in the deserts of East Africa could someday be of great benefit …
President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into whether foreign steel imports are damaging U.S. national security, saying his administration would “fight for American workers and American-made steel.” The probe is authorized under a rarely used section of a 1962 …
Former Brazilian Finance Minister Antonio Palocci told a court hearing Thursday that he could provide details of a political kickback scheme, which could threaten former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s chances of running in the 2018 election. In the …
Argentina hopes to have an agreement on a free-trade deal between the European Union and the South American Mercosur bloc by year’s end, its foreign minister said Thursday. The European Union and Mercosur launched trade negotiations in 1999, but they …
Scientists have discovered that compounds derived from some bacteria can lower blood sugar levels in obese people with prediabetes, possibly preventing diabetes itself from developing. Scientists call the bacteria-derived compounds postbiotics. They are not like probiotics, which are whole, live …
Marijuana enthusiasts in the United States celebrate April 20 — or 4/20 — as an informal holiday, but this year they have something else to get excited about: New polling data show support for legalization of the drug is at …
Dow Chemical is pushing the Trump administration to scrap the findings of federal scientists who point to a family of widely used pesticides as harmful to about 1,800 critically threatened or endangered species. Lawyers representing Dow, whose CEO also heads …
A scaled-down, two-man U.S.-Russian crew blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday for a six-hour ride to the International Space Station, a NASA TV broadcast showed. A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronaut Jack Fischer, 43, and …
A pet can provide comfort and companionship for an elderly person or someone who is disabled. But in the future that pet may be a robotic animal that uses artificial intelligence to interact with humans. The British company that developed …
General Motors said Wednesday that Venezuelan authorities had illegally seized its plant in the industrial hub of Valencia and vowed to “take all legal actions” to defend its rights. The seizure comes amid a deepening economic crisis in leftist-led Venezuela …
A federal judge in Miami fined Princess Cruise Lines $40 million Wednesday for illegally dumping oil waste into the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, and for falsifying records. It is the largest such water pollution fine in U.S. history. …
Peru’s economy will recover in coming years with investment in construction after recent flooding, likely growing 4.5 percent in 2018 and 5 percent in 2019, Finance Minister Alfredo Thorne said on Wednesday. Previously, the government had expected growth of 4.3 …
Facebook on Wednesday pulled aside the curtain on a secretive unit headed by a former chief of the Pentagon’s research arm, disclosing that the social media company is studying ways for people to communicate by thought and touch. Facebook launched …
Over the last six months, the skyline over the sleepy fishing city of Gwadar has been transformed by machines that dredge the Arabian Sea and cranes that set up shipping berths in what is projected to become Pakistan’s biggest international …
The Brazilian government on Wednesday agreed to lower the minimum retirement age for police officers in its pension reform proposal, a day after members of their unions stormed Congress to protest the controversial bill. In the reform draft, congressman Arthur …
The International Monetary Fund said President Trump’s plans to cut regulations and taxes might encourage companies to make risky investments of the kind that preceded the financial crisis in 2008. The comment came Wednesday in the newest edition of the …
The hits, they just keep coming! News was made in February when astronomers found seven potential earth-like planets orbiting the red dwarf star Trappist-1. Wednesday, another red dwarf star is making headlines with the announcement of a ‘super earth’ found …