A leader in the fight for health benefits for emergency personnel who responded to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. has died.Former New York City Police detective Luis Alvarez died from colorectal cancer Saturday, his family announced in a post On Facebook.The 53-year-old Alvarez appeared with American …

A senior World Health Organization official warns efforts to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo will remain elusive unless the vicious cycle of violence in the region is broken.  Latest WHO figures put the number of Ebola cases at 2284, including 1540 …

A group of New York bikers has set out to save the environment by starting a bike-powered composting service. They collect food waste from restaurants and households for composting, and then use that compost as fertilizer to grow vegetables. In a city with a population of 8.5 million people, this …

In a mission to clean up trash floating in the ocean, environmentalists pulled 40 tons (36 metric tons) of abandoned fishing nets this month from an area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.Mariners on a 140-foot (43-meter) cargo sailboat outfitted with a crane voyaged from Hawaii to the heart …

Video games aren’t just for fun — they can also be used to fight disease, new research shows.Scientists combined video games and computer models to show that the spread of a deadly pig disease can be slowed if farmers avoid risky behaviors. The authors say insights from the video games …

The World Health Organization is asking Ugandans to have faith in the trial vaccine being used to contain the Ebola outbreak near the border with Congo. This follows reports that 13 people who came in contact with the virus declined to be vaccinated.Since 2018 Uganda has vaccinated nearly 5,000 people …

Traditional cancer treatments often include chemotherapy, radiation or both. But chemo and radiation kill healthy cells as well as malignant ones, and the side effects are legendary.Sometimes surgery is the best option, but most people have some combination of chemo, radiation and surgery.Overall, cancer treatment is becoming more focused. For …

Vaccination against the virus that causes almost all cervical cancer is having a major impact on stopping infections and should significantly reduce cases of the disease within a decade, researchers said Wednesday.Presenting results of an international analysis covering 60 million people in high-income countries, scientists from Britain and Canada said …

Inside a locked vault at Johnson Space Center is treasure few have seen and fewer have touched.The restricted lab is home to hundreds of pounds of moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts close to a half-century ago.  And for the first time in decades, NASA is about to open some …

Synthetic opioid use is booming, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a worldwide drug report that showed deaths in the United States from overdoses still rising and a “crisis” of tramadol use emerging in parts of Africa.The estimated number of people using opioids – an umbrella term for drugs …

SpaceX launched its heftiest rocket with 24 research satellites Tuesday, a middle-of-the-night rideshare featuring a deep space atomic clock, solar sail, a clean and green rocket fuel testbed, and even human ashes.It was the third flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first ordered by the military.The Defense Department …

Midwifery students in London are learning to bring new life into the world in a radically new way with the help of augmented reality (AR) technology.Using AR headsets and lifelike models of full-term mothers, trainee midwives at Middlesex University can take part in fully simulated births, which the university’s clinical …

Unable to send disease fighters to help battle one of the deadliest Ebola outbreaks in history, U.S. health officials are turning to basketball hall of famer Dikembe Mutombo for help.   Mutombo, regarded as one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history and a well-known philanthropist in his native …

At least 152 children have died in an encephalitis outbreak during the month of June in India’s eastern state of Bihar, according to local health authorities. Following a petition, India’s supreme court ordered an investigation into the epidemic.Acute encephalitis syndrome, sometimes referred to as ‘brain fever’, has claimed lives in …

Thirty-three new cases of measles were reported last week, with 1,077 active cases total within the United States, according to health officials — the worst outbreak in over 25 years, when 2,126 cases were recorded in 1992.Nearly 30 states have reported cases, with outbreaks of over three cases ongoing in …

A group of Oregon state Republican senators have gone into hiding to stop the passage of a landmark climate change legislation. The western state’s House bill 2020 would set limits to carbon emissions with permits auctioned off to polluting industries. Republicans say the bill would hurt rural Oregonians. Democrats have …

The World Health Organization says millions of people with epilepsy are reluctant to seek treatment because of the stigma attached to their ailment, leading to the premature death of many.  WHO has released the first global report on epilepsy.Nearly 50 million people around the world suffer from epilepsy.  The World …

U.S. women will soon have another drug option designed to boost low sex drive: a shot they can give themselves in the thigh or abdomen that raises sexual interest for several hours.The medication OK’d Friday by the Food and Drug Administration is only the second approved to increase sexual desire …

New figures show that Australia’s greenhouse emissions have again increased. They bring into question the Prime Minister’s assertion that Australia would comfortably meet its Paris Agreement obligations “in a canter.” Critics say the latest pollution statistics raise new questions about existing climate policies. In the final quarter of 2018, Australia’s …

A seed developer from the Netherlands credited with introducing high quality disease-resistant vegetable seeds to more than 60 countries including the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia is the 2019 recipient of the World Food Prize. Simon Groot, a sixth generation seedsman, began his search to create better vegetable seeds to help …

The rivers of the world are full of antibiotics. That’s the headline of a new survey that sampled rivers all over the world. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

One of the ways astronomers learn about planets beyond Earth is by studying our own. And there are satellites doing just that, monitoring the Earth’s health, and our own. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

It was a bad day 70 million years ago for a triceratops dinosaur, whose remains are displayed beneath a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton — posed as if it were still alive and ready for dinner.   Huge dinosaurs and other ancient creatures like an elephant-sized ground sloth are part of …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday criticized NASA for aiming to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024 and urged the space agency to focus instead on “much bigger” initiatives like going to Mars, undercutting his previous support for the lunar initiative.  “For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT …

NASA will open parts of the International Space Station to more commercial opportunities, it announced Friday, allowing companies to use the space station’s facilities in a number of ways, including private astronaut missions. The space agency has balked at commercial ventures in the past, but the cost of operating the space station, …