Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday that the failed launch of a 2.6 billion-ruble ($44.95 million) satellite last month was due to an embarrassing programming error. Russian space agency Roscosmos said last month that it had lost contact with the newly launched …
When Cyclone Winston pummeled through Fiji last year, the largest storm recorded in the southern hemisphere, Sofia Talei’s taro and cassava crops were destroyed, leaving her livelihood as a farmer uncertain. “I was so desperate. All the effort we put …
The environmental group Sea Shepherd said fishermen fired 25 shots at one of its night-vision drones in Mexico’s Gulf of California, bringing it down. Various drones have been employed to patrol the Gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez, …
There’s a good chance that 2017 will go down in the history of medicine as a year when genetic engineering finally started moving from research labs to clinics. Several successful stories coming from different parts of the world promise that …
Starfish are making a comeback on the U.S. West Coast, four years after a mysterious syndrome killed millions of them. From 2013 to 2014, Sea Star Wasting Syndrome hit sea stars from British Columbia to Mexico. The starfish would develop …
Eight Eastern U.S. states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency, demanding that it order tougher controls on some Midwestern states over air pollution blowing eastward. New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is leading the lawsuit, saying the Trump administration …
Earle Naval Weapons Station, where the Navy loads some of America’s most sophisticated weapons onto warships, suffered $50 million worth of damage in Superstorm Sandy. Now the naval pier is fortifying itself with some decidedly low-tech protection: oysters. The facility …
China published its first “green development” index on Tuesday, listing regional governments which promote environmentally friendly development, with Beijing coming out top, though it came second-to-last in a survey of public satisfaction. The heavily polluted capital was first in the …
Coastal communities around the world depend on coral reefs for food, storm protection and tourism. But many reefs are suffering under the onslaught of climate change. Scientists are fighting back, however. VOA’s Steve Baragona visited labs in Florida where researchers …
Why do our muscles recover from injury, but lose mass and strength as we age? A new study looked for the answer to why muscle stem cells respond differently to aging and to injury. VOA’s Faith Lapidus reports the findings …
The year 2017 saw amazing advances in some areas of medicine and avoidable setbacks in others. VOA’s Carol Pearson has the highs and the lows in this report. …
Amazon’s diligent, computerized know-it-all is the latest technology to enlist in NORAD Tracks Santa, the military-run program that fields phone calls and emails from children around the world eager to ask when Santa will arrive. Now entering its 62nd year, …
For those interested in experiencing life on the Red Planet, the time has come. There are four operating stations in the world where the environment on Mars is replicated: in the U.S., Australia, Iceland and the Arctic. VOA’s Alex Yanevskyy …
Louisiana officials have chosen a sugar cane farm as the next home for residents of a tiny, shrinking island, a move funded with a 2016 federal grant awarded to help relocate communities fleeing the effects of climate change. Dozens of …
In the face of a diphtheria outbreak in parts of Indonesia, authorities have embarked on an immunization drive to slow the advance of the dangerous respiratory disease. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. Faith Lapidus narrates. …
NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless, the first person to fly freely and untethered in space, has died. He was 80. He was famously photographed in 1984 flying with a hefty spacewalker’s jetpack, alone in the cosmic blackness above a blue Earth. …
One big problem confronts Africa as it tries to predict how its weather patterns will shift in the face of climate change: Almost all the climate models for the continent were created in the United States or Europe. Now South …
A nutritional survey of Rohingya refugee children at a camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, found high rates of malnutrition and other debilitating, life-threatening health problems. UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac calls the survey findings alarming, saying they indicate thousands of Rohingya …
Scott Judd trained his camera lens on the white dot in the distance. As he moved up the Lake Michigan shoreline, the speck on a breakwater came into view and took his breath away: it was a snowy owl, thousands …
In a remarkably strong show of consumer demand, nearly 9 million people signed up for “Obamacare” next year, as government numbers out Thursday proved predictions of its collapse wrong yet again. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said …
While progress has been made against malaria, the mosquito-borne disease kills more than 420,000 people each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Now, drug-resistant malaria strains in Southeast Asia could threaten the global fight against the disease. VOA’s Faith Lapidus reports. …
U.S. deaths from drug overdoses skyrocketed 21 percent last year, and for the second straight year dragged down how long Americans are expected to live. The government figures released Thursday put drug deaths at 63,600, up from about 52,000 in …
Scientists warn a campaign to eradicate polio in central Africa is falling short because of upheaval in the Lake Chad Basin area, where the Boko Haram militant group remains active. On the positive side, on country – Gabon – has …
A survey by the U.N. refugee agency reveals heightened worries by the Rohingya refugee population in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh over their health and safety. It has been nearly four months since the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees began from Myanmar …