Scientists have developed a skin patch that may soon take the “ouch” out of being vaccinated. Every year, in the United States, less than half of the adults who should get a flu vaccine actually get the shot. That’s a …
A quarter-century-old project to repopulate the steppes of Mongolia with wild horses was kept alive as four animals made the long trip back to their ancestral home from the Prague Zoo. Driven to extinction in their homeland in the 1960s, …
Professional football players are still not getting properly checked for concussions, despite a pledge by the sport’s governing body. That was obvious from a review of footage from the games in FIFA’s 2014 World Cup, the international men’s football championship …
Imagine going to the doctor and getting a cooking lesson! That’s what happens at a doctor’s practice near Washington D.C. Dr. Yum Pediatrics is half doctor’s office, with waiting area and exam rooms, half kitchen. Food is an important part …
Doctors encourage their patients to eat a healthful diet, and often give them tips on how to do that. But a pediatrician in Spotsylvania, Virginia, is doing even more. Dr. Nimali Fernando is showing her young patients and their parents …
When we’re buying groceries by weight, being a few grams off may not be a big deal. But we do expect the store scales to be calibrated to show the exact measure. The situation becomes more complicated when we want …
Ethiopia’s highlands traditionally have a built-in protection for the people who live there. The elevation and the cool temperatures have meant that malaria, the deadly mosquito-borne illness, cannot be transmitted. But climate change may be putting an end to …
More than 75 people, mostly young children, have gotten measles in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Nearly all were unvaccinated. Measles is one of the most highly contagious diseases that exists. All it takes is a sneeze or a cough …
More than 75 people, mostly young children, have gotten measles in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Nearly all were unvaccinated. The same is true in every other country worldwide. That’s why pediatricians and public health doctors want every child to …
We know that forests are carbon sinks. That means they absorb a lot of planet-warming carbon dioxide. But researchers are trying to find out just how good they are at storing carbon, and if there is a limit to how …
Chief lieutenants in the Koch brothers’ political network lashed out at the Senate Republican health care bill on Saturday, becoming a powerful outside critic as GOP leaders try to rally support for their plan among rank-and-file Republicans. “This Senate bill …
A cholera outbreak in war-ravaged Yemen could infect more than 300,000 people by the end of August, up from nearly 180,000 cases today, the United Nations said Friday. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports on the dire situation resulting from the 27-month-long …
A deadly heat wave that has claimed at least six lives in parts of the American Southwest continues. While temperatures cooled off Friday in Los Angeles, residents are bracing for a long, hot summer. Planes were grounded for a time …
A deadly heat wave continues in parts of the American Southwest. In Los Angeles, temperatures cooled off Friday, but residents are bracing for a long, hot summer.VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports. …
The Zika virus made headlines last year because it caused microcephaly in many babies whose mothers were pregnant while they had the virus. Microcephaly keeps the brain from developing normally in children but is relatively harmless to adults. That got …
Water temperatures in the northwestern Mediterranean are increasing much faster than global averages, threatening the survival of several species, French researchers said. Weekly water temperature readings by researchers at the Villefranche-sur-Mer oceanography laboratory have shown that Mediterranean surface water temperatures …
The U.N. Children’s Fund warns cholera cases and deaths in war-torn Yemen continue to mount and could reach 300,000 by the end of August. UNICEF puts the current number of suspected cases at nearly 200,000, including more than 1,200 deaths …
Ron Finley has been called a “guerrilla gardener” and the “gangsta gardener,” an edgier description of a man who once defied local authorities to bring nature to the inner city. Finley’s efforts to plant edible gardens on public property have …
A new study by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says that safe burial practices may have helped prevent the transmission of thousands of cases of Ebola during the epidemic in West Africa between 2013 and …
Farming on empty land in one of America’s biggest cities used to be discouraged. But urban gardeners in Los Angeles spent years pressing local politicians to let them grow food in vacant lots, and now their efforts are bearing fruit. …
One of the challenges to designing prosthetics, or exoskeletons for the disabled, is that everyone is different. Technology designed to help a person walk or get around doesn’t work very well when it is built to be one-size-fits-all. But scientists …
Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park will be stripped of Endangered Species Act safeguards this summer, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced on Thursday in a move conservation groups vowed to challenge in court. Dropping federal protection of …
The United Nations reports about 250 million people, or 5 percent of the global adult population, used drugs in 2015, and of those, about 29.5 million suffered from drug-use disorders, including addiction. The World Drug Report 2017 launched Thursday by …
The benefits of a Mediterranean diet are widely chronicled, but new research shows extra-virgin olive oil, a key part of the diet, may protect “against cognitive decline.” Specifically, researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia say extra-virgin olive oil “protects memory …