As climate change and rising seas threaten the world’s coastal cities, experts say natural systems can offer protection. VOA’s Steve Baragona reports from Florida, where mangroves may help shield shorelines. …

The Pentagon acknowledged Saturday that its long-secret UFO investigation program ended in 2012, when U.S. defense officials shifted attention and funding to other priorities. But whether the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program has continued to investigate UFO sightings since its funding ended five years ago could rank as an unexplained …

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is reportedly banning a list of seven words or phrases in official documents, sparking a flood of reaction on social media platforms. Policy analysts at the CDC, based in Atlanta, Georgia, were told about the list of prohibited words at a meeting Thursday with …

A Los Angeles-based company claims it is turning people’s bad habits into good ones with a range of vape-able vitamin supplements. But medical experts say there are no studies yet that show inhaling nutrients is any better than taking vitamin pills or simply eating right. Faith Lapidus reports. …

President Donald Trump’s mining regulators are reconsidering rules meant to protect underground miners from breathing coal and rock dust — the cause of black lung — and diesel exhaust, which can cause cancer. An advocate for coal miners said Friday that this sends a “very bad signal.” The Mine Safety …

A federal judge in Philadelphia on Friday ordered the Trump administration not to enforce new rules that could significantly reduce women’s access to free birth control. Judge Wendy Beetlestone issued the injunction, temporarily stopping the government from enforcing the policy change to former President Barack Obama’s health care law. The …

France gave the world butter croissants and foie gras, yet it has often been a place where being overweight was seen as almost sinful. Now, after taking a hard look at the contradictions in the mirror, its capital has launched a campaign to counter sizeism, an often disregarded kind of …

An ingredient in cannabis called cannabidiol or CBD has shown promise in a clinical trial as a potential new treatment for psychosis, scientists said Friday. In research involving 88 people with psychosis, a mental disorder characterized by anxiety, paranoia and hallucinations, the scientists found patients treated with CBD had lower …

Research funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research is helping give sniffer dogs the skills they need to detect complex modern explosives. Faith Lapidus reports. …

A pledge by health and development experts to tackle neglected diseases that blind, disable and disfigure millions of the world’s poorest people has spurred tremendous progress in five years, a report said on Thursday. More than one billion people were treated in 2016 for painful infections, such as sleeping sickness …

Three astronauts returned to Earth on Thursday after nearly six months aboard the International Space Station, landing on the snow-covered steppes outside of a remote town in Kazakhstan.   A Russian Soyuz capsule with NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Russia’s Sergey Ryazanskiy and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency descended under …

A study of California’s Sierra Nevada during the state’s extreme drought has led NASA scientists to new conclusions about how our planet stores water. The study by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, found that the mountain range rose nearly 2.5 centimeters in height from October 2011 to October …

English hospital officials said Wednesday that a baby born with her heart outside her body had survived three surgeries to mend her condition.  Glenfield Hospital in Leicester said Vanellope Hope Wilkins was born in late November with her heart growing on the outside of her body. The unusual condition is …

At least half the world’s population is unable to access essential health services and many others are forced into extreme poverty by having to pay for healthcare they cannot afford, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. Some 800 million people worldwide spend at least 10 percent of their household …

Scientists have unearthed in New Zealand fossil bones of what might be the heavyweight champion of the penguin world, a bird nearly 6 feet tall (1.77 meters) that thrived 55 to 60 million years ago, relatively soon after the demise of the dinosaurs. Researchers said on Tuesday the ancient penguin, …

When U.S.-based scientist Christopher Cantrell heard President Donald Trump pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, he did not imagine that six months later he would be shaking the French leader’s hand and starting anew in France. Hours after Trump’s announcement in June, President Emmanuel Macron made …

Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing at a faster clip, according to a new report released Tuesday.   Water is also warming and sea ice is melting at the fastest pace in 1,500 years at the top of the world.   The annual report released Tuesday by the National Oceanic …

SpaceX has delayed its latest grocery run for the International Space Station for at least a day.   The company now aims to launch its first recycled rocket for NASA on Wednesday.   The unmanned Falcon originally flew in June. The Dragon capsule, meanwhile, made a space station shipment in …

French President Emmanuel Macron has told more than 200 global investors and 50 world leaders in Paris the global community “is losing the battle” against climate change. “It’s time to act and move faster and win this battle,” Macron said Tuesday at a summit to secure more funding to fight …

Medical marijuana has been used to treat epilepsy in patients for years, and this month, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said it should be studied and treated like other pain relief drugs. A growing body of scientific evidence is leading the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to do that. Meanwhile, …

Scientists have for the first time fixed a protein defect that causes Huntington’s disease by injecting a drug from Ionis Pharmaceuticals into the spine, offering new hope for patients with the devastating genetic disease. The success in the early-stage clinical trial has prompted Roche to exercise its option to license …

Emmanuel Macron plans to award multi-year grants for several U.S.-based scientists to relocate to France, his office said on Monday on the eve of a climate summit hosted by the president to raise finances to counter global warming. Macron unveiled the “Make our Planet Great Again” grants after President Donald …

Space Age hand-me-downs are soaring to a whole new level.  On Tuesday, SpaceX plans to launch its first rocket for NASA. The unmanned Falcon 9 — last used in June — will carry up a Dragon capsule that’s also flown on a previous space station supply run.  NASA’s International Space …

Pledging that “America will once again reach for the moon,” President Donald Trump Monday ordered the National Air and Space Administration to revive the manned space exploration program that was suspended in 2011.   “[This] marks an important step in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time …

President Donald Trump will sign a directive Monday ordering the National Air and Space Administration to revive the program to send American astronauts back to the moon, and eventually to Mars. “The president listened to the National Space Council’s recommendations, and he will change our nation’s human spaceflight policy to …