Assessing someone’s medical status was easy on the TV series, Star Trek. Dr. McCoy just waved his tricorder over the patient, and any broken bones, concussions or internal bleeding were instantly revealed. While in real life, ultrasounds and x-rays help physicians diagnose everything from breast cancer to kidney stones, those …

Once a hugely productive gold mine in the western state of South Dakota, it is now being used as an underground research lab where scientists are trying to learn more about the universe. VOA’s Lesya Bakalets and Serge Sokolov went to the former mine to report on what is now …

Rough estimates say about 2 of every 100 people around the world have or need replacement joints. Now, some Polish doctors are using stem cell technology to rebuild worn out cartilage, instead of replacing it with metal. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

A U.S.-based center says in a new report the eradication of the painful Guinea worm disease could be in sight. The Carter Center, leader of the campaign to eliminate the disease, says there were only 30 identified cases of Guinea worm disease in isolated areas last year in Chad and …

Heart disease kills more than 17 million people around the world every year. It’s the world’s leading cause of death. Scientists are now using artificial intelligence to help them diagnose this deadly disease. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

The flu season in the U.S. is getting worse. Health officials last week said flu was blanketing the country, but they thought there was a good chance the season was peaking. But the newest numbers out Friday show it grew even more intense. “This is a season that has a …

Christa McAuliffe’s lost lessons are finally getting taught in space. Thirty-two years after the Challenger disaster, a pair of teachers-turned-astronauts will pay tribute to McAuliffe by carrying out her science classes on the International Space Station. As NASA’s first designated teacher in space, McAuliffe was going to experiment with fluids …

Earth last year wasn’t quite as hot as 2016’s record-shattering mark, but it ranked second or third, depending on who was counting. Either way, scientists say it showed a clear signal of man-made global warming because it was the hottest year they’ve seen without an El Nino boosting temperatures naturally.  …

Zambia says it has made progress in containing a cholera outbreak that has killed about 70 people in the southern African nation since October. Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya this week said there had been a “drastic reduction” in the number of new cases in the outbreak, which has mostly affected …

Every year there are an estimated 78,000 new cases of brain cancer diagnosed in the United States, and nearly 400,000 worldwide. It is a particularly challenging cancer and very seldom are patients ever “cured.” But there are new therapies that are helping patients lead longer, more normal lives. Kevin Enochs …

Britain has appointed a minister of loneliness to combat social isolation experienced by one in 10 Britons.  Sports Minister Tracey Crouch will add the job to her existing portfolio to advance the work of slain lawmaker Jo Cox, who set up the Commission on Loneliness in 2016. “For far too …

A prestigious scientific panel is recommending that states significantly lower their drunken driving thresholds as part of a blueprint to eliminate the “entirely preventable” 10,000 alcohol-impaired driving deaths in the United States each year. The U.S. government-commissioned, 489-page report by a panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and …

The descriptions are haunting. Some victims felt fine in the morning and were dead by night. Faces turned blue as patients coughed up blood. Stacked bodies outnumbered coffins. A century after one of history’s most catastrophic disease outbreaks, scientists are rethinking how to guard against another super-flu like the 1918 …

The state Department of Fish and Game has released the lowest forecasts for Southeast Alaska king salmon since record keeping began in the 1970s. King salmon numbers have been dwindling for years, but researchers don’t have a lot of answers as to why, KTOO Public Media in Juneau reported Tuesday. …

Wearable technology is finding its way into many workouts. The thinking is that constantly monitoring their body can help people get the most out of their time at the gym. That’s the idea behind Orange theory, the newest U.S. fitness fad. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

Mathilde Krim, a prominent AIDS researcher who galvanized worldwide support in the early fight against the deadly disease, has died. She was 91.   Krim was founding chairman of The Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR. The nonprofit says she died at her home in King’s Point, New York, on …

Federal ocean managers say it might be time to move the East Coast population of the world’s largest turtle from the United States’ list of endangered animals. An arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has received a petition from a fishing group asking that the Northwest Atlantic Ocean’s …

A report by the U.N. children’s fund finds babies born in war-torn Yemen are dying at an alarmingly high rate because of the collapsing health system, lack of food and clean water.  The U.N. children’s fund reports more than three million children have been born in Yemen since the country’s …

The World Health Organization has added all of Sao Paulo state to its list of areas at risk for yellow fever. That puts the megacity of Sao Paulo on the list and means that the organization is recommending that all international visitors to the state be vaccinated. Tuesday’s announcement comes …

A city in central Japan used its emergency loudspeaker system in an attempt to recall four packages of blowfish meat after discovering a fifth one contained the potentially deadly liver. No one has died. The fish, known as fugu, is an expensive winter delicacy but requires a license to prepare …

Fighting in Ukraine that erupted in 2014 escalated the spread of HIV throughout the country as millions of infected people were uprooted by violence, a study published Monday found. Conflict-affected areas such as Donetsk and Luhansk, two large cities in the east of Ukraine, were the main exporters of the …

When heavy monsoon rains triggered unprecedented flooding last August in the area around western Nepal’s Babai and West Rapti rivers, the swollen waters crossed the border into India within a few hours. But swift warnings from Nepali authorities to the downriver Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh allowed officials …

For Type 1 diabetics their disease requires them to constantly monitor their blood sugar. Now some of them are creating some home-made tech to help monitor their status. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

More than 12 million boxes of French baby milk products are being recalled from 83 countries for suspected salmonella contamination. The recall includes Lactalis’ Picot, Milumel and Taranis brands. The head of the French dairy Lactalis on Sunday confirmed that its products are being recalled from countries across Europe, Africa, …

Researchers say climate change is responsible for the vast majority of green sea turtles in the northern Great Barrier Reef off Australia being female.   Scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say the temperature at which turtle eggs incubate determines the sex of hatchlings, and warn that …