The past few years have seen a drastic decline in the number of kids who play American football. One of the main reasons is the fear of brain injuries due to the constant helmet on helmet bashing. A new study …
Scientists say DNA tests on a skeleton found in a lavish Viking warrior’s grave in Sweden show the remains are those of a woman in her 30s. While bone experts had long suspected the remains belong to a woman, the …
Beautiful art and façades adorn buildings in many cities. Some are carved by hand, while others are manufactured. Now, a smart robot is creating large-scale art to transform public places. As we hear from VOA’s Deborah Block, the droid gives …
More than 500 people have died so far in a cholera epidemic that is sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Outbreaks of the water-borne disease occur regularly in Congo, mainly due to poor sanitation …
The World Health Organization reports about 800,000 people commit suicide every year. To mark this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10), WHO is stressing the important role the media can play in stopping people from taking their own lives. …
Agrico, an agricultural company in the Middle East country of Qatar, is creating fertile soil through composting. The reason: Most crops can’t be grown in the Qatari desert, but with this specially-blended compost, vegetables are being cultivated in greenhouses. VOA’s …
Landfills are probably the oldest type of waste disposal – dumping trash in a midden or pit. But when a landfill is filled up, what can a community do with the site? A 30-year project to reclaim what was once …
Researchers have found genetic mutations that affect whether a woman is likely to have her baby early or carry it to full term. Even late preterm babies, those born between 34 and 36 weeks of gestation, are more likely to …
An international team of researchers has identified — for the first time — six genes that determine the length of pregnancy and whether a baby is born preterm. Preterm birth is a major cause of infant death and disability. Now, …
Washington, D.C., is home to nine species of bats. They play a vital role in the ecosystem, but biologists are worried that some may have contracted a deadly disease called white-nose syndrome. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias went on a so-called …
Scientists have accused the liquor industry of misleading the public over the link between consuming alcohol and cancer. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine compare the actions with the tobacco industry’s attempts to dispute the link …
Asia-Pacific — home to more than half the world’s population and some of its fastest-growing economies — is a key battleground in the fight against pollution, one of the biggest threats to the planet and its people, the U.N. environment …
Mysterious black holes, thought to reside in the center of every galaxy, are difficult to study because even the closest one, in the center of our own Milky Way, is still some 27,000 light years away. But researchers at the …
Records are made for breaking, and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is breaking them in droves. When she returns to Earth on Sept, 2, she’ll have earned a place among the nation’s greatest space explorers. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
Scientists have successfully used “reprogrammed” stem cells to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys, raising hopes the technique could be used in the future to help patients with Parkinson’s disease. Since Parkinson’s is caused by a lack of dopamine made …
A test version of a spacecraft resembling a mini space shuttle was carried aloft over the Mojave Desert by a helicopter Wednesday in a precursor to a free flight in which it will be released to autonomously land on a …
The world’s biggest T. rex is getting ready for a cutting-edge makeover. The Field Museum in Chicago said Wednesday that it would take down and remount the 40½-foot-long (12.3-meter) Tyrannosaurus nicknamed Sue, perhaps the world’s most famous dinosaur fossil, in …
According to the Water Project, more than 700 million people do not have easy access to clean, safe water. Solving the problem is the focus of an annual meeting of NGOs, charities and government leaders. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …
Israeli scientists have developed a peptide that could be used in antimicrobial medicines which could help treat infections in a post-antibiotic era. Faith Lapidus reports. …
Forests in the northeastern United States and southern Canada could be ravaged by tree-killing beetles in coming decades as a warming climate expands the pest’s habitat, a study has found. Over the next 60 years, southern pine beetles could infest …
The U.S. space agency’s Cassini spacecraft will end its 13-year mission to Saturn in mid-September by transmitting data until the final moment before it plunges into the ringed planet’s atmosphere, officials said Tuesday. Cassini, the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, …
School playgrounds across Syria are being transformed into vegetable gardens where children whose diets have been devastated by six years of war can learn to grow — and then eat — aubergines, lettuces, peppers, cabbages and cucumbers. Traditional Syrian cuisine …
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the opioid crisis America’s “top lethal issue” Tuesday, saying that a “comprehensive antidote” was needed to address the crisis. Speaking from the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children national conference in Green Bay, Wisconsin, …
Middle-class cocaine users are turning a blind eye to the link between their drug habit and sex trafficking, slavery and murder, said the former head of UK drug strategy. “These are middle-aged, middle-class people at dinner parties,” Tony Saggers, former …