Arctic sea ice may be thinning faster than predicted because salty snow on the surface of the ice skews the accuracy of satellite measurements, a new study from the University of Calgary said on Tuesday. The report from the Canadian …
Hope is the thing with feathers, poet Emily Dickinson wrote. For Richard Thorns, the feathers are pink. Thorns’ hope? To prove that a colorful duck is not extinct. This week, he launches a seventh expedition into the inaccessible wilds …
Nearly 30 years ago, 1,000 children a day were paralyzed by the polio virus. So far this year, 11 children have been diagnosed with polio, thanks to a global effort to wipe out the polio virus. The effort has produced …
When Britain’s Cambridge University put physicist Stephen Hawking’s 1966 thesis on line for the first time Monday, the university’s website collapsed. Professor Hawking’s “Properties of Expanding Universes” has been the most requested item in the university’s library. To meet the …
A chocolate bar may make you feel better when you’re down, but a cup of yogurt or a handful of cashews might be a better choice. “I think about our body in some ways like a car engine,” says therapist …
It was a source of national pride — technology and discipline besting a crippling lack of water. But four years of drought have overtaxed Israel’s unmatched array of desalination and wastewater treatment plants, choking its most fertile regions and catching …
A collection of radio telescopes that spans thousands of miles and is remotely operated from central New Mexico has measured a span of 66,000 light-years (one light-year is equal to 6 trillion miles) from Earth across the Milky Way’s center …
The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented opioid overdose epidemic. The abuse of prescription opioids along with the illicit use of heroin killed nearly 60-thousand people last year. Every day 91 Americans die from prescription opioid related …
The World Health Organization rescinded Sunday its appointment of Zimbabwe’s longtime President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador. “I have listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns, and heard the different issues that they have raised. I have …
Despite laws banning child marriage, rights groups in Pakistan say the problem continues, partly because of a desire to follow tradition, and partly because of poverty. No matter the reason, development experts say early marriage hurts the education and health …
Autistic children often have social difficulties. They tend to linger on the edges of social groups at school and have fewer friendships than those without the condition. But that can change, if their classmates understand them and give them a …
Georgia Rep. Betty Price says her comments on people with HIV that ignited a national firestorm were “taken completely out of context.” Price, the wife of former U.S. Health Secretary Tom Price, was in a legislative committee meeting Tuesday when …
President Salva Kiir opened South Sudan’s first-ever kidney hospital Thursday in Juba, calling it a breakthrough for the country’s medical care. The facility — a welcome positive sign in conflict-torn South Sudan — is to provide free services to all …
A malaria outbreak has killed at least four people at a refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, according to local residents and health officials. Hundreds of people have come down with the infectious disease at the Kalobeyei refugee complex in Kenya’s …
The World Health Organization reports pneumonic plague is continuing to spread at an alarming rate in urban areas of Madagascar and greater effort is needed to bring this deadly disease under control. Latest figures put the number of suspected cases …
Astronauts went spacewalking Friday to provide some necessary focus to the International Space Station’s robot arm. The main job for commander Randy Bresnik and teacher-turned-astronaut Joe Acaba was to replace a blurry camera on the new robotic hand that was …
The parliament of Australia’s second largest state passed legislation Friday to allow terminally ill patients to seek medical help to end their lives, a bill that is expected to act as a catalyst for the rest of the country to …
The idea of gravitational waves has been around for over 100 years since Albert Einstein posited their existence. But in 2016 scientists proved they were out there using giant L-shaped detectors called gravitational wave observatories. But this week more news …
Back in the old days, movies were edited by simply cutting out a piece of film you didn’t want and replacing it with a new shot. That’s almost exactly how the CRISPR gene editing technology works, but on a cellular …
Divers are removing hundreds of old tires, plastic jugs and other junk that was dumped off the Southern California coast nearly 30 years ago by a man who thought he was helping the ocean environment. The cleanup began last week …
Some flowers have found a nifty way to get the blues. They create a blue halo, apparently to attract the bees they need for pollination, scientists reported Wednesday. Bees are drawn to the color blue, but it’s hard for flowers …
The statistics in the United States are disturbing enough: every year two million people contract bacterial infections that are difficult or impossible to treat with antibiotics; 23,000 of those people die. Doctors gathered in Berlin are warning it’s going to …
Planting forests and other activities that harness the power of nature could play a major role in limiting global warming under the 2015 Paris agreement, an international study showed Monday. Natural climate solutions, also including protection of carbon-storing peat lands …
New York City is known for its tall buildings, financial markets and centers for the arts, but America’s most populated city is becoming known for something you might not expect — farms. New York City’s government announced last month that …