Most people associate the flu with coldlike symptoms. They don’t realize the flu can lead to life-threatening complications. Last year was a particularly bad flu season in the Northern Hemisphere: Nearly 80,000 people died in the U.S., including 180 children. Already this year, a child in Florida died from the …

Scientists are putting a robotic Mars rover to the test in Spain’s rocky Tabernas Desert. The European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency plan to land a rover on the Red Planet in 2021, to search for microscopic signs of life. Faith Lapidus reports. …

Somalia hosted its first technology and innovation conference this month, with much talk about the industry’s potential. Somalia’s security threats and poor governance make attracting investment a huge challenge. But as Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Mogadishu, a company has set up the capital city’s first co-working space to help …

Scientists have found a new clue that Parkinson’s disease may get its start not in the brain but in the gut – maybe in the appendix. People who had their appendix removed early in life had a lower risk of getting the tremor-inducing brain disease decades later, researchers reported Wednesday. …

More than 250 corporate signatories joined together to try and deal with plastic pollution in an announcement timed to coincide with the 5th Annual “Our Ocean Conference” in Bali, Indonesia.   Under terms of the agreement, the companies agreed to, among other things, make all of the plastics they produce …

Russia’s space agency says an investigation has found that a rocket carrying a crew to the International Space Station failed recently because of a technical malfunction of a sensor. The Soyuz-FG rocket carrying a NASA astronaut and a Roscosmos cosmonaut failed two minutes into the October 11 flight, sending their …

A just-released report from the World Wildlife Fund details a rapid decline in the world’s biodiversity. In general, the percentage of all kinds of animals in the land, sea and air have declined rapidly since 1970. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

This is part of “Ocean Shock,” a Reuters series exploring climate change’s impact on sea creatures and the people who depend on them. To stand at the edge of an ocean is to face an eternity of waves and water, a shroud covering seven-tenths of the Earth. Hidden below are …

Poking above the bright pink bougainvillea that spills into the street, the lone minaret of the Ta’la Al-Ali mosque towers over the Khalda neighborhood of Amman. Aside from its colorful stain-glassed windows and ornate calligraphy, this mosque stands out for another reason: its roof is covered with shining solar panels …

NASA’s elite planet-hunting spacecraft has been declared dead, just a few months shy of its 10th anniversary.  Officials announced the Kepler Space Telescope’s demise Tuesday.  Already well past its expected lifetime, the 9½-year-old Kepler had been running low on fuel for months. Its ability to point at distant stars and …

Asia could reap massive benefits in health, environment, agriculture and economic growth if governments implement 25 policies such as banning the burning of household waste and cutting industrial emissions, according to a U.N. report. Air pollution is a health risk for 4 billion people in Asia, killing about 4 million …

Wealthy space buffs will have the chance to own three small particles of lunar matter when what Sotheby’s describes as the only known documented “moon rocks” to be legally available for private ownership hit the auction block in November. Sotheby’s said on Tuesday it expects the fragments, retrieved from the …

The Hubble Telescope has given us spectacular pictures from space, from the dramatic image of the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, some 6,500 to 7,000 light years from Earth, to a snapshot of nearly 10,000 galaxies, including some that may be among the most distant known, existing when …

An Egyptian government program to pay traders to buy rice straw from farmers at the end of harvest has helped to combat one of Cairo’s ugliest features — a huge black cloud that hangs over the capital during the burning season. Cairo is the world’s second most polluted megacity, the …

From a copy of his PhD thesis to his wheelchair, items belonging to Stephen Hawking are headed for auction, offering fans of the late British physicist famed for his work exploring the origins of the universe a chance to buy some of his possessions. Known for his acclaimed research on …

A new report says the world lost a staggering 60 percent of its wildlife populations over a period of four decades. In its 2018 Living Planet Report, the World Wildlife Fund cites deforestation, climate change and a rise in pollution for the decline among 16,700 populations between 1970 and 2014. …

It is the time of the year when Indians hit the roads to distribute gifts and sweets to friends and family, visit colorful “Diwali bazars” and party as they gear up to celebrate the main Hindu festival of Diwali on November 7. But in the Indian capital, there is a …

New research strengthens the case that people used the chocolate ingredient cacao in South America 5,400 years ago, underscoring the seed’s radical transformation into today’s Twix bars and M&M candies.   Tests indicate traces of cacao on artifacts from an archaeological site in Ecuador, according to a study published Monday. …

A meticulous re-creation of a three-decade-old study of birds on a mountainside in Peru has given scientists a rare chance to prove how the changing climate is pushing species out of the places they are best adapted to.  Surveys of more than 400 species of birds in 1985 and then …

The World Health Organization says air pollution kills hundreds of thousands of children every year and puts the physical health and neurological development of hundreds of millions of other youngsters at serious risk. The WHO is issuing a report titled “Air pollution and child health: Prescribing clean air” on the …

Dogs are well known and valued for their ability to smell everything from drugs, to bombs to contraband electronics. But scientists at Lancaster University have trained them to sniff out illnesses, specifically malaria. And that could be game changing in the fight to stop the spread of the disease. VOA’s …

The European Union’s environmental agency says air pollution is slowly improving across the continent but still exceeds the bloc’s limits and guidelines from the U.N. health agency. The European Environment Agency on Monday issued its 2018 report on air quality and said emissions from road traffic, agriculture, energy production, industry …

The fields grow shoulder-high with weeds out the window of Bob Fitzgerald’s Ford pickup. The drive through Fitzgerald’s neighborhood in Princess Anne, Maryland, is a tour of dying forests and abandoned cropland. “A few years ago, all of this was a good farm,” he said. “And it’s gone, as a …

As climate change raises sea levels, salty ocean water is pushing its way inland. That’s ruining valuable farmland around the world. On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, once-productive fields are succumbing to the saline waters. So researchers are looking for ways to keep farmers in business as the land changes. VOA’s Steve …

Insurance shoppers likely will have several choices for individual health coverage this fall. The bad news? There’s no guarantee they will cover certain doctors or prescriptions. Health insurers have stopped fleeing the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces and they’ve toned down premium hikes that gouged consumers in recent years. Some are …