Scientists have accused the alcohol industry of misleading the public over the link between alcohol and cancer. Researchers looked at the websites of 28 global organizations representing the alcohol industry, and concluded that the vast majority distort or misrepresent the evidence of an alcohol-related cancer risk. “What you might see …

At least 1.4 million people uprooted by Boko Haram’s insurgency in northeast Nigeria are living in ‘cholera hotspots,’ prey to an outbreak of the deadly disease which is sweeping through camps for the displaced, the United Nations said on Thursday. An estimated 28 people have died from cholera in the …

SpaceX launched the Air Force’s super-secret space shuttle on Thursday, a technology tester capable of spending years in orbit. The unmanned Falcon rocket blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, as schools and businesses boarded up for Hurricane Irma. It’s the fifth flight for one of these crewless minishuttles, known …

Giving the poorest people in the world’s fast-growing cities access to affordable, clean energy supplies, while wiping out the use of hazardous solid fuels is essential for urban economies to grow on a warming planet, researchers said. Some half a billion people in urban areas still cook with traditional fuels …

Treating young people who suffer from insomnia by using online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) could reduce debilitating mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, scientists said Wednesday. In a large trial published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, researchers at Oxford University’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute also found that …

Tiny pieces of plastic have been found in drinking water on five continents – from Trump Tower in New York to a public tap on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda – posing a potential risk to people’s health, researchers said on Wednesday. Plastic degrades over time into tiny …

Like the film character Indiana Jones, Mark Fairchild is a professor at a university in Indiana. He travels to far off places in search of Biblical antiquities and doesn’t like snakes. That’s why his students call him Indiana Mark. It’s also one of the reasons he’s the focus of a …

Peripheral Artery disease is a painful condition caused when cholesterol and other fats build up and clog blood flow in the veins. One of the most effective treatments involves getting up and moving. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

The man who inspired the ice bucket challenge that has raised millions for ALS research is being honored at Boston City Hall. Mayor Martin Walsh is hosting a rally Tuesday for Pete Frates at City Hall Plaza. The event coincides with the release of a new book on Frates. “The …

A European Union official says 40 countries now have been affected by a Europe-wide contaminated egg scandal, including 24 EU members and 16 non-members.   Vytenis Andriukaitis, the official in charge of health and food safety for the European Commission, said Tuesday in Estonia that only four countries in the …

One couple displaced by Harvey managed to get a hotel room, but got kicked out after one night for lacking state identification that was lost to the flooding. A man whose cellphone was wrecked by floodwater is staying at a convention center, waiting for government offices to reopen Tuesday.   …

Much of Houston is cleaning up from the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey and the flooding that followed. The rebuilding is just beginning, and the financial impact is being felt by both flood victims and those who did not get water in their homes. Elizabeth Lee explains from Houston. …

The world’s poorest continent continued to grow more generous according to a yearly index of charitable giving released on Tuesday, bucking the trend of otherwise declining signs of charity worldwide. Africa was in a 2016 survey the only continent to report a continent-wide increase of its index generosity score when …

Astronomers have found new evidence for the existence of a mid-sized black hole, considered the missing link in the evolution of supermassive black holes. Astronomers in Japan found the possible black hole in our own Milky Way galaxy, a long-theorized object which is bigger than the small black holes formed …

Officials in San Diego County have declared a public health emergency because of the spread of the liver disease hepatitis A.   Infections have killed 15 people and hospitalized nearly 400 more, with the homeless population hit hardest since the outbreak started last November.   The Union-Tribune reports that Friday’s …

The Autism Society estimates about 1 percent of the world’s population is on the autism spectrum. The disorder can affect a person’s ability to interact with others and respond to emotions and social cues. But a new app for Google Glass might be helping. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

Floodwaters have inundated at least five highly contaminated toxic waste sites near Houston, raising concerns that the pollution there might spread. The Associated Press visited the sites this past week, some of them still only accessible by boat. Long a center of the American petrochemical industry, the Houston metro area …

The smoke from massive wildfires hangs like fog over large parts of the U.S. West, an irritating haze causing health concerns, forcing sports teams to change schedules and disrupting life from Seattle to tiny Seeley Lake, Montana.   Air quality has been rated unhealthy across the region because of blazes …

Floodwaters are beginning to recede around Houston, and although the rain in Houston has stopped, VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, assessing its impact on the health of Houston’s residents is only just beginning. …

When U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson returns to Earth on Saturday from the International Space Station, she will have spent more time in space than any other American. Whitson will have logged 665 days in space over three separate missions, the equivalent of about one year and 10 months outside the …

Mysterious black holes, thought to reside in the center of every galaxy, are difficult to study because even the closest one, in the center of our own Milky Way, is still some 27,000 light years away. But researchers at the University of Nottingham’s Quantum Gravity Laboratory have found that some …

Records are made for breaking, and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is breaking them in droves. When she returns to Earth on Sept, 2, she’ll have earned a place among the nation’s greatest space explorers. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. …

Scientists have successfully used “reprogrammed” stem cells to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys, raising hopes the technique could be used in the future to help patients with Parkinson’s disease. Since Parkinson’s is caused by a lack of dopamine made by brain cells, researchers have long hoped to use stem …

A test version of a spacecraft resembling a mini space shuttle was carried aloft over the Mojave Desert by a helicopter Wednesday in a precursor to a free flight in which it will be released to autonomously land on a runway as it would in a return from orbit.   …

The world’s biggest T. rex is getting ready for a cutting-edge makeover. The Field Museum in Chicago said Wednesday that it would take down and remount the 40½-foot-long (12.3-meter) Tyrannosaurus nicknamed Sue, perhaps the world’s most famous dinosaur fossil, in a way that embodies the latest understanding of this ferocious …