A company whose prescription opioid marketing practices are being blamed for sparking the addiction and overdose crisis says it’s helping to fund an effort to make a lower-cost overdose antidote. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma announced Wednesday that it’s making a $3.4 million grant to Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, …

The technology sector provides many jobs for today’s innovators. But one scientist and teacher in Cameroon says there’s no reason why women should not be part of that technological growth. She’s making it her goal to prepare more young girls to enter the workforce. Arash Arabasadi reports. …

More than a quarter of the world’s adults — 1.4 billion people — exercise too little, putting them at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and cancers, according to a World Health Organization-led study. In 2016, around one in three women and one in four men worldwide were …

Seven scientists in the United States and Britain who have come up with a revolutionary gene therapy cure for a rare genetic form of childhood blindness won a 1 million euro ($1.15 million) prize Tuesday, Portugal’s Champalimaud Foundation said. Established in 2006, the annual award for work related to vision …

Fall armyworms are on the march across Africa. Agriculture experts say the pests, the larvae of a type of moth, could cause more than $13 billion in crop losses this year. To stop them, scientists are researching pesticides, landscape management methods, and genetically modified crops. Faith Lapidus reports on an …

Asia’s growing appetite for meat and seafood over the next three decades will cause huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions and antibiotics used in foods, researchers said Tuesday. Rising population, incomes and urbanization will drive a 78 percent increase in meat and seafood demand from 2017 to 2050, according to …

The U.S. space agency NASA is offering a public challenge, with a lofty $750,000 reward, to anyone who can find ways to turn carbon dioxide into compounds that would be useful on Mars. Calling it the “CO2 Conversion Challenge,” NASA scientists say they need help finding a way to turn …

Developed countries are dragging their feet on meeting their pledges of billions of dollars to help developing nations tackle climate change, leaving poor nations with mounting costs from rising temperatures, rights groups said. Rich governments have promised to mobilize $100 billion per year in climate finance by 2020 to help …

Scientists are using a new way to track animal species without having to capture them. Through a process called environmental DNA, scientists can now obtain the genetic trail animals leave behind, which could help to protect and save threatened species. VOA’s Deborah Block has more. …

Government authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo say 250 schools in North Kivu and Ituri provinces will open their doors to more than 82,500 children when the new school year begins Monday. These areas are the epicenter of the latest Ebola epidemic in DRC. The Ebola virus is …

Researchers have been searching for ways to reduce cattle emissions with food additives, such as garlic, oregano, cinnamon and even curry — with mixed results. Dairy farms and other livestock operations are a major source of methane, a heat-trapping gas, much more potent than carbon dioxide. Both gases contribute to …

About one in eight essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries may be fake or contain dangerous mixes of ingredients that put patients’ lives at risk, a research review suggests. Researchers examined data from more 350 previous studies that tested more 400,000 drug samples in low- and middle-income countries. Overall, …

The number of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States is hitting record highs, according to latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were diagnosed in 2017, says the CDC. This is the fourth year of increases …

Algerian health authorities claim the situation is under control after a cholera epidemic in at least four provinces caused more than 60 confirmed cases of the disease, with several deaths reported. Residents in a village of Tipaza province are drinking water from a spring government officials claim is infected with …

The World Health Organization says Africans are living longer and healthier lives.  But the WHO warns that that millions on the continent still face the challenge of chronic diseases.   News of the uptick came in Dakar this week where WHO representatives met with officials from 47 African countries. Healthy …

Chinese authorities should not arbitrarily shut down firms that meet emission standards during environmental cleanup campaigns, Vice Premier Han Zheng said on Wednesday. Beijing has made reducing pollution one of its highest national priorities, but the drive has been criticized as poorly planned at the local level, with across-the-board closures …

Iraqi health officials say that a health crisis stemming from water pollution and a shortage of clean drinking water has worsened in recent days, as hospitals in the southern port city of Basra treat more than 1,000 cases of intestinal infections on a daily basis. The problem was exacerbated several …

Express fitness is gaining popularity in the United States, as people try to squeeze exercise into their hectic schedules. To accommodate them, gyms are offering more total body workouts in a compressed period of time. VOA’s Jill Craig has more. …

U.S. Senator John McCain’s death from glioblastoma on Saturday brought new attention to the most deadly type of brain cancer.  The National Brain Tumor Society says 80 percent of brain tumors are benign, but a glioblastoma tumor grows rapidly, and it returns after treatment. It usually affects adults, especially men …

When farmer Julimar Pansera purchased land in Brazil’s interior seven years ago, it was blanketed in tiers of fruit trees, twisted shrubs and the occasional palm standing tall in a thicket of undergrowth. He mowed down most of that vegetation, set it ablaze and started planting soybeans. Over the past …

India said on Tuesday it expected to spend less than 100 billion rupees ($1.43 billion) on its first manned space mission to be launched by 2022, suggesting it is likely to be cheaper than similar projects by the United States and China. India is cultivating a reputation as a low-cost …

Sizzling weather this summer will put pressure on almost 200 governments to reach a deal in Poland in December on the details of a global plan to limit climate change, the incoming president of the U.N. talks said. Environment ministers will meet in Katowice, the heart of Poland’s coal-producing region, Silesia, to agree …

India’s federal health ministry called Tuesday for stopping the sale or import of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco devices that companies like Philip Morris International Inc. were planning to launch in the country. India has stringent laws to deter tobacco use, which the government says kills more than 900,000 people every year. But the country …

A team of U.K.-based scientists is collecting rhinoceros droppings for a new conservation initiative to help prevent global extinction of the endangered species. In a collaboration dubbed “Saving species with feces,” the team from Chester Zoo and University of Manchester aims to identify causes of poor population growth of Africa’s …

Gun deaths worldwide total about 250,000 yearly and the United States is among just six countries that make up half of those fatalities, a study found.   The results from one of the most comprehensive analyses of firearm deaths reveal “a major public health problem for humanity,” according to an …