Four more cases of Ebola have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past two days. And the World Health Organization says officials are now concerned the virus will spread beyond the DRC. The total number of …
A new study is blaming 2017’s unusually high number of hurricanes on the Atlantic Ocean’s rising surface temperatures. The report is one of the first to suggest that human-driven global warming is actually causing more hurricanes. The study published in …
People who regularly engage in light to moderate physical activity — like walking four hours a week or swimming two hours weekly — might have less severe strokes than individuals who aren’t as active, a Swedish study suggests. Researchers examined data on 925 …
Newer birth control for men is beginning to fill the gap between the traditional condoms and sterilization. One new technology involves inserting a hypodermic needle into the scrotum. It is said to decrease libido. For men, contraception had remained fairly stagnant …
A scrawny dwarf planet nicknamed “the Goblin” has been discovered well beyond Pluto. A round frozen world just 186 miles (300 kilometers) across, the Goblin was spotted by astronomers in 2015 around Halloween, thus its spooky name. But it wasn’t …
A study of the African bush elephant’s vast network of deep wrinkles has found it is intricately designed to help the animals keep their cool, fight off parasites and defend against sun damage, scientists said on Tuesday. The fine pattern …
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is swinging by Venus on its unprecedented journey to the sun. Launched in August, the spacecraft gets a gravity assist Wednesday as it passes within 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) of Venus. The flyby is the …
Arrayed between elegant stone buildings and run-down railway tracks in the northwest of Paris lie bustling playgrounds, plant-filled ponds and stretches of lush grass. The Clichy-Batignolles area, a former industrial wasteland, has morphed into the French capital’s first “eco-neighborhood,” billed …
The United States is working with governments across Latin America to help prevent the spread of diseases like diphtheria and measles from Venezuela as refugees flee the chaotic country, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Tuesday. …
The World Health Organization and its partners are conducting a second round of cholera vaccinations in Yemen in hopes of staving off a third major wave of this fatal disease. A first round of cholera vaccinations was conducted in August …
Technologies to reflect some of the sun’s rays away from Earth, as a way to cool future runaway climate change, are moving closer to becoming a reality, and rules are needed now to govern them, scientists and other experts said …
Delegates from 137 countries are attending a week-long anti-tobacco conference to exchange ideas and propose policies for tackling the worldwide tobacco pandemic. Organizers say progress has been made since the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into …
The 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to James Allison of the University of Texas and Tasuku Honjo of Japan’s Kyoto University for their discoveries in cancer therapy. “Allison and Honjo showed how different strategies for …
Scientists have managed to wipe out a population of mosquitoes in a laboratory using a type of genetic engineering known as a gene drive. The intervention prevented the females from reproducing and caused the entire population to die off. Scientists …
Seven in 10 people worldwide die from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung diseases, according to a study published in The Lancet earlier this month. These diseases not only rob people prematurely of their lives, they cost enormous amounts …
A rise in violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is displacing more people and hampering humanitarian efforts, including operations to stop the spread of Ebola, the United Nations refugee agency warns. More than 20 people have been killed …
Tuberculosis is a vicious epidemic that is drastically underfunded. That was the takeaway message from the first high-level meeting focused on the infectious disease at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Amina Mohammad, U.N. deputy secretary-general, said the disease …
A new report warns that wetlands are disappearing three times faster than the world’s forests, with serious consequences for all life on earth. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is a global treaty ratified in 1971 by 170 countries to protect …
An observatory in Barrow, Alaska, the most northerly astronomical outpost in the U.S., has become a key scientific instrument in studying climate change. Established in 1973, the Barrow Observatory is staffed year-round by two researchers who measure and track changes …
An estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter, the disease’s highest death toll in at least four decades. The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, revealed the total in an …
After decades of disappointment in efforts to develop a malaria vaccine, researchers are starting to see promise in a new approach. While most vaccines trigger the body’s defenses to produce antibodies against a disease-causing germ, the new approach recruits an …
Sometimes, all the hand sanitizer in the world cannot prevent the inevitable. College freshmen across the country are being introduced to a whole new world of pathogens and other infections at this time of year. It starts with just one …
The Trojan Horse allowed the ancient Greek army to enter the city of Troy and defeat it. A similar strategy could help doctors destroy superbugs that are resistant to current antibiotics. The decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics is among the most …
An experimental GlaxoSmithKline vaccine could prevent tuberculosis developing in half of those who receive it, making it potentially the first new shot against the global killer in a century, researchers said on Tuesday. Given the failure of other candidates in …