A new report recently published in the journal Nature suggests the Earth’s oceans are absorbing more of the planet’s excess heat than previously thought. Scientists have known for some time that oceans store excess heat energy, and this helps keep …
An investigation has found that a failed Russian rocket launch three weeks ago that aborted after just two minutes was caused by a sensor that was damaged during assembly, a top Russian official said on Thursday. The Soyuz-FG rocket carrying …
The 2017 flu season was particularly bad in the Northern Hemisphere. Nearly 80,000 people died in the U.S., including 180 children. Already this year, the virus has claimed the life of a child in Florida. A Florida hospital has surveyed …
Most people associate the flu with coldlike symptoms. They don’t realize the flu can lead to life-threatening complications. Last year was a particularly bad flu season in the Northern Hemisphere: Nearly 80,000 people died in the U.S., including 180 children. …
Scientists are putting a robotic Mars rover to the test in Spain’s rocky Tabernas Desert. The European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency plan to land a rover on the Red Planet in 2021, to search for microscopic signs …
Somalia hosted its first technology and innovation conference this month, with much talk about the industry’s potential. Somalia’s security threats and poor governance make attracting investment a huge challenge. But as Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Mogadishu, a company has …
Scientists have found a new clue that Parkinson’s disease may get its start not in the brain but in the gut – maybe in the appendix. People who had their appendix removed early in life had a lower risk of …
More than 250 corporate signatories joined together to try and deal with plastic pollution in an announcement timed to coincide with the 5th Annual “Our Ocean Conference” in Bali, Indonesia. Under terms of the agreement, the companies agreed to, …
Russia’s space agency says an investigation has found that a rocket carrying a crew to the International Space Station failed recently because of a technical malfunction of a sensor. The Soyuz-FG rocket carrying a NASA astronaut and a Roscosmos cosmonaut …
A just-released report from the World Wildlife Fund details a rapid decline in the world’s biodiversity. In general, the percentage of all kinds of animals in the land, sea and air have declined rapidly since 1970. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
This is part of “Ocean Shock,” a Reuters series exploring climate change’s impact on sea creatures and the people who depend on them. To stand at the edge of an ocean is to face an eternity of waves and water, …
Poking above the bright pink bougainvillea that spills into the street, the lone minaret of the Ta’la Al-Ali mosque towers over the Khalda neighborhood of Amman. Aside from its colorful stain-glassed windows and ornate calligraphy, this mosque stands out for …
NASA’s elite planet-hunting spacecraft has been declared dead, just a few months shy of its 10th anniversary. Officials announced the Kepler Space Telescope’s demise Tuesday. Already well past its expected lifetime, the 9½-year-old Kepler had been running low on fuel …
Asia could reap massive benefits in health, environment, agriculture and economic growth if governments implement 25 policies such as banning the burning of household waste and cutting industrial emissions, according to a U.N. report. Air pollution is a health risk …
Wealthy space buffs will have the chance to own three small particles of lunar matter when what Sotheby’s describes as the only known documented “moon rocks” to be legally available for private ownership hit the auction block in November. Sotheby’s …
It is the time of the year when Indians hit the roads to distribute gifts and sweets to friends and family, visit colorful “Diwali bazars” and party as they gear up to celebrate the main Hindu festival of Diwali on …
New research strengthens the case that people used the chocolate ingredient cacao in South America 5,400 years ago, underscoring the seed’s radical transformation into today’s Twix bars and M&M candies. Tests indicate traces of cacao on artifacts from an …
A meticulous re-creation of a three-decade-old study of birds on a mountainside in Peru has given scientists a rare chance to prove how the changing climate is pushing species out of the places they are best adapted to. Surveys of …
Demand for bitcoin could single-handedly derail efforts to limit global warming because the increasingly popular digital currency takes huge amounts of energy to produce, scientists said on Monday. Producing bitcoin at a pace with growing demand could by 2033 defeat …
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is now closer to the sun than any spacecraft has ever gotten. Parker on Monday surpassed the record of 26.6 million miles (43 million kilometers) set by Helios-2 back in 1976. And it will keep …
The World Health Organization says air pollution kills hundreds of thousands of children every year and puts the physical health and neurological development of hundreds of millions of other youngsters at serious risk. The WHO is issuing a report titled …
Dogs are well known and valued for their ability to smell everything from drugs, to bombs to contraband electronics. But scientists at Lancaster University have trained them to sniff out illnesses, specifically malaria. And that could be game changing in …
The European Union’s environmental agency says air pollution is slowly improving across the continent but still exceeds the bloc’s limits and guidelines from the U.N. health agency. The European Environment Agency on Monday issued its 2018 report on air quality …
The fields grow shoulder-high with weeds out the window of Bob Fitzgerald’s Ford pickup. The drive through Fitzgerald’s neighborhood in Princess Anne, Maryland, is a tour of dying forests and abandoned cropland. “A few years ago, all of this was …