Every year vast amounts of bottles and bags make their way into the world’s oceans….leaving scientists searching for solutions to purge the planet’s plastic problems.  As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, European researchers have started looking at the much, much bigger picture. …

A deadly virus called Nipah carried by bats has already caused human outbreaks across South and South East Asia and has “serious epidemic potential,” global health and infectious disease specialists said on Monday.The virus, identified in 1999 in Malaysia and Singapore, has sparked outbreaks with mortality rates of between 40% …

Samoa said Sunday its death toll from measles has risen to 68, with three fatalities recorded in the previous 24 hours.  The Health Ministry has confirmed 4,581 cases of the disease.  Most of the victims have been young children.The South Pacific island has declared a state of emergency, closing all …

An Ebola survivor has fallen ill with the disease for a second time in eastern Congo, the Congolese health authorities said on Sunday, saying it was not yet clear if it was a case of relapse or reinfection.The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo has infected over 3,300 people …

 Samoa said Saturday the death toll from measles has risen to 65.  Most of the victims were young children.The Health Ministry said 103 new cases have been reported since Friday.The new figures were released after a two-day lockdown, allowing the government to conduct a mass immunization campaign.The ministry said almost …

Alaska will soon close a year that is shaping up as its hottest on record, with glaciers in the “Frontier State” melting at record or near-record levels, pouring waters into rising global seas, scientists said after taking fall measurements.Lemon Creek Glacier in Juneau, where records go back to the 1940s, …

Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Madrid Friday to join thousands of other young people in a march to demand world leaders take real action against climate change.                     After making it through a swarm of media cameras and microphones at the Spanish capital’s northern train station, the Swedish …

Drones are being used as a new weapon in the fight against Malaria on the island of Zanzibar. In the village of Cheju in particular, drones are spraying a silicone-based liquid on large stretches of stagnant water in rice paddies where malaria-carrying mosquitoes lay their eggs. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo …

When it comes to climate change, deciding what facts you can trust and what’s fake news can be a challenge, particularly in an era of sophisticated misinformation campaigns and complex scientific data.But an ally is at hand: ‘Cranky Uncle,’ a gruff cartoon character and denier of climate change facts who, …

Scientists launched genetically modified mice into space December 5 as part of a study to find ways to help maintain the health of astronauts in space They have twice the muscle mass of their “ordinary” counterparts. As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, the research could provide insight into muscular degeneration in …

Measles infected nearly 10 million people in 2018 and killed 140,000, mostly children, as devastating outbreaks of the viral disease hit every region of the world, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.In figures described by its director general as “an outrage,” the WHO said most of last year’s measles …

Biogen Inc on Thursday presented new data on its experimental Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab that eased concerns raised by some experts but still left many questions unanswered as the company made its case about why it plans to seek U.S. approval after declaring the drug a failure in March.Experts had been …

On a cold afternoon in late November, Jan Gerrit Otterpohl eyes the chimneys of Berlin’s Heizkraftwerk Mitte, a state-of-the-art power plant that supplies the city with heat and electricity. It’s not the billowing steam he’s interested in, but the largely invisible carbon dioxide that the power station exhales as it …

Cameroon has organized a national vaccination campaign to stop a measles outbreak that has infected more than 3,000 people, especially children, this year. The most-affected area is the central African state’s northern border with Nigeria and Chad, where 17 children have died this month. Health officials believe many more people …

Samoa’s main streets were eerily quiet Thursday as the government stepped up efforts to curb a measles epidemic that has killed 62 people.The government told most public and private workers to stay home Thursday and Friday and shut down roads to nonessential vehicles as teams began going door-to-door to administer …

By day, the small commercial kitchen in a Hong Kong industrial building produces snacks. At night, it turns into a secret laboratory assembling a kit for pro-democracy protesters seeking to detox after repeated exposure to tear gas.Volunteers seated around a kitchen island sort and pack multicolored pills into small resealable …

NASA’s sun-skimming spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, is surprising scientists with its unprecedented close views of our star. Scientists released the first results from the mission Wednesday. They observed bursts of energetic particles never seen before on such a small scale as well as switchback-like reversals in the out-flowing solar magnetic …

Russia’s anti-doping chief has called for the dismissal of all national team athletics coaches and the creation of an international working group to help lift the suspension against the country’s athletics federation, a letter seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed.Russia’s athletics federation has been suspended since 2015 over a World …

A new study is sounding the alarm on the decline in life expectancy in the United States. Based on the data analysis report, life expectancy had increased by almost 10 years over the course of nearly six decades — from close to 70 years old to just shy of 79 …

Bleak news from the Centers for Disease Control shows that Americans are dying younger and that life expectancy in the U.S. is down. It might be time to call dogs to the rescue. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports that research on dogs may help us reverse the aches and pains of …

U.S. health officials say the progress in the Trump administration’s goal of wiping out the HIV epidemic by 2030 has stalled.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 38,000 new cases of HIV occur every year. HIV is the virus that can lead to AIDS.The CDC’s report says white …

Human health is paying the price of the world’s failure to curb global warming, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday, urging governments at U.N. climate talks to cut climate-changing emissions faster and provide funds to address growing threats.Those range from lung and heart problems caused by toxic air to deaths …

From the surface, these 22 square miles of water are unexceptional.But dip beneath the surface — go down 60 or 70 feet — and you’ll find a spectacular seascape. Sponges, barnacles and tube worms cover rocky ledges on the ocean floor, forming a “live bottom.”Gray’s Reef is little more than …

Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Portugal on Tuesday after a three-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, telling cheering supporters that the journey had “energized” her for the fight against climate change. The Swedish teen, whose one-woman protests outside the Swedish parliament helped inspire a global youth movement, sailed into …

As world leaders gather in Spain to discuss how to slow the warming of the planet, a spotlight falls on China — the top emitter of greenhouse gases.China burns about half the coal used globally each year. Between 2000 and 2018, its annual carbon emissions nearly tripled, and it now …