People who regularly engage in light to moderate physical activity — like walking four hours a week or swimming two hours weekly — might have less severe strokes than individuals who aren’t as active, a Swedish study suggests. Researchers examined data on 925 patients who were treated for strokes at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in …

Newer birth control for men is beginning to fill the gap between the traditional condoms and sterilization. One new technology involves inserting a hypodermic needle into the scrotum. It is said to decrease libido. For men, contraception had remained fairly stagnant for the past century, primarily limited to condoms (85 percent …

A scrawny dwarf planet nicknamed “the Goblin” has been discovered well beyond Pluto. A round frozen world just 186 miles (300 kilometers) across, the Goblin was spotted by astronomers in 2015 around Halloween, thus its spooky name. But it wasn’t publicly unveiled until Tuesday following further observations with ground telescopes. …

A study of the African bush elephant’s vast network of deep wrinkles has found it is intricately designed to help the animals keep their cool, fight off parasites and defend against sun damage, scientists said on Tuesday. The fine pattern of millions of channels means the elephant’s skin can retain …

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is swinging by Venus on its unprecedented journey to the sun.   Launched in August, the spacecraft gets a gravity assist Wednesday as it passes within 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) of Venus. The flyby is the first of seven that will draw Parker ever closer to …

Arrayed between elegant stone buildings and run-down railway tracks in the northwest of Paris lie bustling playgrounds, plant-filled ponds and stretches of lush grass. The Clichy-Batignolles area, a former industrial wasteland, has morphed into the French capital’s first “eco-neighborhood,” billed as a model of sustainable development for the rest of …

The United States is working with governments across Latin America to help prevent the spread of diseases like diphtheria and measles from Venezuela as refugees flee the chaotic country, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Tuesday. Azar, a former executive at drugmaker Eli Lilly, said it …

The Trump administration is quietly moving to weaken U.S. radiation regulations, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you — like a little bit of sunlight. The government’s current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer …

A trio of American, French and Canadian scientists won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics on Tuesday for breakthroughs in laser technology that have turned light beams into precision tools for everything from eye surgery to micro-machining. They include the first female physics prize winner in 55 years. Canada’s Donna …

The World Health Organization and its partners are conducting a second round of cholera vaccinations in Yemen in hopes of staving off a third major wave of this fatal disease. A first round of cholera vaccinations was conducted in August in the Yemeni governorates of Hodeida and Ibb.  They are …

Technologies to reflect some of the sun’s rays away from Earth, as a way to cool future runaway climate change, are moving closer to becoming a reality, and rules are needed now to govern them, scientists and other experts said Monday. “There is no risk-free path at this point” in …

Delegates from 137 countries are attending a week-long anti-tobacco conference to exchange ideas and propose policies for tackling the worldwide tobacco pandemic. Organizers say progress has been made since the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force in 2005, but more needs to be done. Organizers …

The 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to James Allison of the University of Texas and Tasuku Honjo of Japan’s Kyoto University for their discoveries in cancer therapy. “Allison and Honjo showed how different strategies for inhibiting the brakes on the immune system can be used …

Scientists have managed to wipe out a population of mosquitoes in a laboratory using a type of genetic engineering known as a gene drive. The intervention prevented the females from reproducing and caused the entire population to die off. Scientists hope the method can be transferred from the lab to …

Seven in 10 people worldwide die from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung diseases, according to a study published in The Lancet earlier this month. These diseases not only rob people prematurely of their lives, they cost enormous amounts of money. The Lancet report estimated that over the next …

A rise in violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is displacing more people and hampering humanitarian efforts, including operations to stop the spread of Ebola, the United Nations refugee agency warns. More than 20 people have been killed in recent attacks in the Beni area of Congo’s North …

Tuberculosis is a vicious epidemic that is drastically underfunded. That was the takeaway message from the first high-level meeting focused on the infectious disease at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Amina Mohammad, U.N. deputy secretary-general, said the disease is fueled by poverty, inequality, migration and conflict, and that …

A new report warns that wetlands are disappearing three times faster than the world’s forests, with serious consequences for all life on earth.  The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is a global treaty ratified in 1971 by 170 countries to protect wetlands, which are ecosystems inundated by water, such as swamps, …

An observatory in Barrow, Alaska, the most northerly astronomical outpost in the U.S., has become a key scientific instrument in studying climate change. Established in 1973, the Barrow Observatory is staffed year-round by two researchers who measure and track changes in air quality and weather, while also acclimating with local …

An estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter, the disease’s highest death toll in at least four decades. The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, revealed the total in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. Flu experts knew it …

After decades of disappointment in efforts to develop a malaria vaccine, researchers are starting to see promise in a new approach. While most vaccines trigger the body’s defenses to produce antibodies against a disease-causing germ, the new approach recruits an entirely different branch of the immune system. If it works, …

Sometimes, all the hand sanitizer in the world cannot prevent the inevitable. College freshmen across the country are being introduced to a whole new world of pathogens and other infections at this time of year. It starts with just one or two people in a dorm hall, said Dr. David …

The Trojan Horse allowed the ancient Greek army to enter the city of Troy and defeat it. A similar strategy could help doctors destroy superbugs that are resistant to current antibiotics. The decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics is among the most critical challenges facing medicine today, as drug-resistant bacteria resist almost …

An experimental GlaxoSmithKline vaccine could prevent tuberculosis developing in half of those who receive it, making it potentially the first new shot against the global killer in a century, researchers said on Tuesday. Given the failure of other candidates in recent years, it marks a milestone in the fight against …

The number of babies born infected with syphilis in the United States has more than doubled since 2013, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a report released Tuesday, the CDC said the number of cases of congenital syphilis, in which the disease is passed from …