According to the National Institutes of Health, 17 percent of people around the world will be 65 or older by 2050. Currently it is just more than 8 percent. That expected flood of elderly people is prompting authorities to think about new ways to care for them, and no surprise, …

An increasing number of museums and exhibition halls around the world use virtual reality technology to transport visitors to different spaces and different time. London’s Somerset House recently opened a virtually recreated exhibition staged 178 years ago, showing some of the earliest photographs, transporting users to the birth of the …

Whether it’s for religious, ethical or health reasons, people who don’t eat meat have had vegetarian options with the help of some creativity in the kitchen. Plants may also hold the key to solving global food problems. That’s the mission of a new generation of plant-based foods created with technology’s …

Instagram and Snapchat are the worst social media platform for young people’s mental health, and YouTube is the most positive, a new study suggests. The ranking comes in a report from the British Royal Society for Public Health, which ranked the sites’ impact on young people. “Social media has been …

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has promised to donate $1 million to support press freedom, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced Tuesday. “This generous gift will help us continue to grow, to offer our legal and educational support to many more news organizations, and to expand our services …

According to a recent analysis, in about 15 years, depending on the country, up to 38 percent of jobs performed by humans may be turned over to robots. Experts who gathered last week at a robotic expo in Paris say we have to prepare for the new reality if we …

There are an estimated 39 million blind people in the world. Another 200 million, people like Julissa Marquez, are visually impaired. A knife attack left her with a less than 10 percent chance of having useful vision. But some new technology has literally opened her eyes. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots. Organizers of the annual robotics competition say the goal is to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent. Ricci Shryock …

A tattoo artist in California has created what many of us can’t imagine — a tattoo that also produces sound. Artist Nate Siggard inks audio soundwaves onto the skin that makes it possible to hear music or someone’s voice by using a smartphone app. VOA’s Deborah Block explains how he …

Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots. Organizers of the annual robotics competition say the goal is to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent. The hum …

Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots, and organizers hoped to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent. …

Russian cybercriminals used malware planted on Android mobile devices to steal from domestic bank customers and were planning to target European lenders before their arrest, investigators and sources with knowledge of the case told Reuters. Their campaign raised a relatively small sum by cybercrime standards — more than 50 million …

Leaked Facebook documents reveal the company walks a fine line between free speech and violent or hateful content. The Guardian newspaper says it obtained the “more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts” outlining how the social media giant decides what content can stay and what gets taken down. …

China’s biggest online retailer, JD.com Inc., announced plans Monday to develop drone aircraft capable of carrying a ton or more for long-distance deliveries.   The company said it will test the drones on a network it is developing to cover the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi. It said they will …

Robot teammates and “snake” arms that can find a crack .005 millimeter long were just two of the U.S. military’s latest technological innovations on display at the Pentagon this week. The Defense Laboratory Enterprise showcased more than 80 exhibits on its biennial Lab Day on Thursday. The enterprise is a …

One day instead of visiting a doctor in person for health information or searching online, you could be asking for advice from a medical expert’s avatar. A new app is being developed that can be used on a smartphone to ask a virtual doctor about various medical conditions and their …

A couple of things about the WannaCry cyberattack are certain. It was the biggest in history and it’s a scary preview of things to come. But one thing is a lot less clear: whether North Korea had anything to do with it.   Despite bits and pieces of evidence that …

Robots can see well enough to drive a car. Computers can hear our voices and respond to commands. VOA’s Arturo Martinez and Steve Baragona report that engineers are breaking through the next sensation frontier for robots: touch. Steve Baragona narrates. …

Virgin Galactic’s Beth Moses, who received the Adler Planetarium’s “Women in Space Science Award” this year, views the opportunity for widely available space flight as a unifying endeavor for humanity. As Kane Farabaugh reports from Chicago, Moses is telling students about space flight as a way to motivate them to …

Two-thirds of those caught up in the past week’s global ransomware attack were running Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system without the latest security updates, a survey for Reuters by security ratings firm BitSight found. Researchers are struggling to try to find early traces of WannaCry, which remains an active threat …

The European Union’s competition watchdog has fined Facebook 110 million euros ($122 million) for providing misleading information over its buyout of mobile messaging service WhatsApp. The European Commission said Thursday that when Facebook informed the Commission of the 2014 buyout, it said it would be unable to “establish reliable automated …

When Hurricane Sandy swept over Long Island, New York, in October 2012, power was knocked out and traffic lights were inoperable. While driving in her car, Stony Brook University student Vishwaja Muppa, 21, was struck by a police car and later died. The death of Muppa, from India, was one …

Apple will reportedly announce an update to its lineup of laptops at its annual developer conference, known as WWDC, in June. The report from Bloomberg suggests Apple is responding to increased competition from rival Microsoft. According to the report, Apple will announce three new laptops: The MacBook Pro will get …

The hacker group behind the leak of cyber spying tools from the U.S. National Security Agency, which were used in last week’s “ransomware” cyberattack, says it has more code that it plans to start selling through a subscription service launching next month. The group known as Shadow Brokers posted a …

Motorized skateboards are a simple and affordable form of personal transportation while advanced battery technology considerably extended their range. Now a startup company in Germany offers a skateboard that is almost entirely printed in plastic and has wireless speed control. VOA’s George Putic reports. …