Wolves were once so plentiful in the abundant forests that would become Oregon that the earliest settlers gathered from far and wide to discuss how to kill them.   Those “wolf meetings”in the 1840s, spawned by a common interest, eventually led to the formation of the Oregon territory, the precursor …

This weekend, TV viewers across America will again be watching advertisements sponsored by major tobacco companies, but quite different from the ones pulled from the airwaves nearly 50 years ago. Instead of attractive people enjoying a smoke, these ads will lay out in plain text and narration the dangers of …

Goodbye, Moon. We don’t need you anymore. The Earth’s night skies are getting brighter. A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, finds the Earth’s artificially lit outdoor areas grew by 2.2 percent per year from 2012 to 2016. Light pollution is actually worse than that, according to the …

Sue Brogan’s street is barely above sea level on a good day. During autumn’s “king tides,” when the sun and moon align to create the highest tides of the year, Biscayne Bay backs up through storm drains and flows into Brogan’s street, in Miami’s low-lying Shorecrest neighborhood. Roads flood. The …

Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, which lies in the center of the country, is home to hundreds of species of fish that provide the Southeast Asian nation with up to 60 percent of its protein. But the lake’s rich fishery is at risk because of overfishing, pollution and hydroelectric dams. VOA’s …

Cancer doctors struggling to work out the best way to use modern immunotherapy drugs now have further evidence of the benefits of adding them to chemotherapy, despite earlier skepticism. News that Roche’s immune system-boosting drug Tecentriq delayed lung cancer progression when given alongside chemo and its older drug Avastin validates …

Preparing for a century of steadily higher tides is a central challenge for city officials from Boston to Bangkok. The U.S. city of Miami, Florida, and its neighbors are home to nearly 3 million people and billions of dollars of real estate development. VOA’s Steve Baragona has a look at …

Parasitic worms found in a North Korean soldier, critically injured during a desperate defection, highlight nutrition and hygiene problems that experts say have plagued the isolated country for decades. At a briefing Wednesday, lead surgeon Lee Cook-jong displayed photos showing dozens of flesh-colored parasites, including one 27 cm (10.6 in) …

Another wearable health monitor is poised to enter the market. As Faith Lapidus reports, this one is on permanent watch for any signs of illness. …

Fotis Kafatos, a Greek molecular biologist who had a distinguished academic career in both the United States and Europe and became the founding president of the European Research Council, has died. He was 77. His family announced his death in Heraklion, Crete, on Saturday “after a long illness.” Born in …

The so-called ‘godfather of coral’ is part of a new research mission to unlock some of the secrets of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.  Dr. Charlie Veron is part of a scientific team searching for the “super corals” that managed to survive consecutive years of bleaching on the world’s largest reef …

A 2014 study by the World Health Organization concluded that there are 400 million people around the world living with diabetes. One of the many complications of diabetes is the prevalence of foot ulcers, which if untreated can lead to amputations, and in many cases death. But a simple scanner …

NASA captured 20 years of changing seasons in a striking new global map of the home planet. The data visualization, released this week, shows Earth’s fluctuations as seen from space. The polar ice caps and snow cover are shown ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The varying ocean shades of …

One million people across three Yemeni cities are at risk of a renewed cholera outbreak and other water-borne diseases following the closing of airports and sea ports by a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels, an international aid group said on Friday. The International Committee of the Red Cross said …

Millions of Americans feed wild birds in their backyards, from cardinals and English sparrows to blue jays and doves. Making seeds available attracts more birds and gives bird watchers a chance to enjoy seeing and maybe counting them. But it also helps birds, whether they are native or just passing …

A newly discovered object from another star system that’s passing through ours is shaped like a giant pink fire extinguisher.   That’s the word this week from astronomers who have been observing this first-ever confirmed interstellar visitor.   “I’m surprised by the elongated shape — nobody expected that,” said astronomer …

Passenger pigeons were once so plentiful they could darken the daytime sky when they flew over North America, but oddly, their abundance may have played a role in their extinction, researchers said Thursday. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, the pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius), evolved quickly and in the process, lost certain …

Battle lines are being drawn as the first gene therapy for an inherited condition nears the U.S. market, offering hope for people with a rare form of blindness and creating a cost dilemma for health care providers. Spark Therapeutics, whose Luxturna treatment has been recommended for U.S. approval, told investors …

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the deadliest flu pandemic in recorded history. More people died in the 1918 flu pandemic than in World War I. Despite medical breakthroughs in controlling many diseases, influenza is one that remains elusive. VOA medical correspondent Carol Pearson reports. …

It is difficult to overstate the potential that gene editing holds for the future of medicine. An attempt to explore its potential was undertaken in California this week when a man suffering from a rare genetic disease received an infusion of gene-altering tools that could lead to a cure. VOA’s …

Pope Francis condemned on Thursday inequality in health care, particularly in rich countries, saying governments had a duty to protect all citizens. “Increasingly sophisticated and costly treatments are available to ever more limited and privileged segments of the population,” Francis said in an address to a conference of European members …

Burmese soldiers have gang raped Rohingya women in continued violence against the Muslim minority in the Rakhine state, according to a Human Rights Watch report. Human Rights Watch cited firsthand interviews with 52 Rohingya women and girls who fled to Bangladesh and reported being raped by security forces in Myanmar. …

Giant rats are probably not the first thing that come to mind to tackle tuberculosis but scientists hope their sniffing skills will speed up efforts to detect the deadly disease in major cities across the world. Tuberculosis, which is curable and preventable, is one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, …

Climate change threats, from worsening drought and flooding to sea level rise, could increase the risks of hunger and child malnutrition around the world by 20 percent by 2050, food security researchers warned Wednesday. But looking carefully at the very different risks facing each country, region and type of food …

Scientists for the first time have tried editing a gene inside the body in a bold attempt to permanently change a person’s DNA to try to cure a disease.   The experiment was done Monday in California on 44-year-old Brian Madeux. Through an IV, he received billions of copies of …