Skygazers will have a celestial treat this month, when the longest total lunar eclipse of this century will grace the night sky on the evening of July 27.  NASA says the lunar eclipse will last for 1 hour and 43 minutes with total viability in Eastern Africa and Central Asia. …

A measles outbreak is growing in Brazil after cases were imported from neighboring Venezuela where health services have collapsed. More than 460 cases of the disease have been confirmed in two Brazilian border states, the Health Ministry said Monday. There are also concerns that the outbreak has reached an isolated …

About 100 dementia sufferers in Britain will take part in government-backed trials using virtual reality to help recall lost memories, the firm behind the technology said on Tuesday. Virtual reality (VR) headsets allow people with dementia to watch films that take them to popular seaside resorts, a 1940s candy store …

It was 50 years ago the sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey by author Arthur C. Clarke and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, opened in theaters across America to mixed reviews. The almost three-hour long film, was too cerebral and slow- moving to be appreciated by general audiences in 1968. Today, half …

A team of six young Ugandan scientists won a prestigious engineering prize for a non-invasive rapid testing kit for malaria they hope will one day be widely used across Africa. The award by the Royal Academy of Engineering in Britain comes with nearly $33,000 in prize money. VOA’s Mariama Diallo …

Bees are having a much harder time finding food in the region known as America’s last honeybee refuge, a new federal study found. The country’s hot spot for commercial beekeeping is the Northern Great Plains of the Dakotas and neighboring areas, where more 1 million colonies spend their summer feasting …

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is sending back incredible close-ups of the dwarf planet Ceres. The spacecraft has been circling Ceres since 2015. In June, it reached its lowest orbit yet, skimming the surface from just 22 miles (35 kilometers) up. The latest pictures released Monday offer unprecedented views of a huge …

Go ahead and have that cup of coffee, maybe even several more. New research shows it may boost chances for a longer life, even for those who down at least eight cups daily. In a study of nearly half-a-million British adults, coffee drinkers had a slightly lower risk of death …

The polar bear may be the classic poster child for climate change, but it is far from the only animal threatened by a warming Arctic. Because the region is warming two to three times more quickly than the rest of the planet, the rapidly melting sea ice is opening new …

P.B. Smith Elementary School in Warrenton, Virginia, is one of a growing number of schools around the United States that have vegetable gardens. Teaching children about gardening gives them a chance to get hands-on experience with growing and eating vegetables, learning about nutrition and nature in the process.  Last year, …

The International Space Station got its first robot with artificial intelligence Monday, along with some berries, ice cream and identical brown mice.   SpaceX’s capsule reached the station three days after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Station astronaut Ricky Arnold used a large mechanical arm to grab the Dragon capsule …

A new round of a polio immunization campaign went into action Monday in Afghanistan amid concerns insurgent bans could possibly deprive hundreds of thousands of children from receiving the vaccine. During the five-day campaign, officials say, about 52,000 Afghan vaccinators will visit 6.4 million children under the age of five. …

A human rights watchdog says Indonesia’s crackdown on its LGBT community is contributing to the country’s soaring HIV rate. Human Rights Watch says Indonesian authorities have taken “unlawful action,” in collaboration sometimes with militant Islamist groups, against people presumed to be LGBT.   A newly released 70-page report documents how …

Just call her Professor Fiona. The Cincinnati Zoo’s famous premature baby hippo does more than delight social media fans and help sell a wide range of merchandise. She’s also an educational and literary force; heroine of a half-dozen books so far and a popular subject for library and classroom activities. …

June 30 marks Asteroid Day, a U.N.-sanctioned campaign to promote awareness around the world of what’s up in the sky. In Milan, scientists are assembling a new telescope that uses “insect vision” to spot risky celestial objects. Faith Lapidus explains. …

A new study of a popular HIV drug could ease concerns about its link to depression. Researchers in Uganda found that efavirenz, once feared to lead to depression and suicide, did not cause the expected negative side effects in their patients. Efavirenz is an affordable, once-a-day pill used around the …

The suicide rate in the U.S. is rising. A new government report shows nearly 45,000 Americans killed themselves in 2016, more than twice the number of homicides. In fact, the suicide rate, particularly among young people ages 15 to 34, has been rising at an alarming rate for almost three …

Sharks are the stars of a splashy new exhibit at the New York Aquarium. The new exhibit is a major step in the beachfront facility’s recovery from the devastating impact of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. Faith Lapidus reports. …

Kids exposed to tobacco smoke in the womb and early in infancy could have double the odds of developing hearing loss compared with children who were not exposed to tobacco at all, a Japanese study suggests. While previous research suggests that adult smokers are at greater risk of hearing loss than nonsmokers, less is …

The International Labor Organization (ILO) says urgent action is needed to avert a global crisis as the number of people, including children and elderly, needing care rises, The warning is part of a new ILO report on care work and care jobs unveiled Thursday in Geneva. The ILO cautions that …

Many elementary schools around the United States have started gardens to give their young students hands-on experience with growing and eating vegetables, learning about nutrition and nature in the process. The Ecology Club at P.B. Smith Elementary School in Warrenton, Virginia, started its garden a couple of years ago. As …

There’s an exciting new breakthrough in treating deadly brain tumors. Doctors have used a modified polio virus to treat people with brain cancer. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports the results, so far, are promising. …

A Japanese space explorer arrived at an asteroid Wednesday after a 3 1/2-year journey and now begins its real work of trying to blow a crater to collect samples to eventually bring back to Earth.   The unmanned Hayabusa2 spacecraft reached its base of operations about 20 kilometers (12 miles) …

Suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Two teenagers have come up with a way to try and reduce the suicide rate with a smartphone app. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo sat down with the inventors, who …

Malnutrition is the “challenge of our time,” with diet-related disease afflicting almost every country in the world, the winners of a $250,000 prize dubbed the Nobel for agriculture said Monday. David Nabarro and Lawrence Haddad, who were jointly awarded this year’s World Food Prize, are credited with cutting the number …