Kristin Zaitz is confident that her nuclear power plant is safe.   Zaitz, an engineering manager, was at Diablo Canyon Power Plant during both her pregnancies and has scuba dived to inspect the plant, which hugs the California coast. Zaitz wears a pendant with a tiny bit of uranium inside, …

Nuclear power in the U.S. is under threat: power plants are closing and new construction is being abandoned. At a recent conference in San Francisco, women working in the industry talked about how more should be done to make nuclear power’s case to the public, and how they may be …

After decades of a one-therapy-fits-all approach to fighting deadly diseases such as cancer or cystic fibrosis, physicians and researchers around the world are increasingly turning to a new tactic called personalized medicine. Practices are tailored to individual patients because different people’s response to the same drug may be different. And …

A group of Egyptian students have built a machine they say can produce fuel from worn-out vehicle tires. The device heats the tires until they reach evaporation point. The vapor then enters a condenser. The result is a product “very similar in properties to pure diesel, and the carbon or …

The oceans are rising faster and faster, threatening coastal cities around the world. The quickening pace is due, in part, to changes happening in the Arctic that scientists are just beginning to understand. From Greenland, VOA’s Steve Baragona reports on how warming temperatures are driving more warming. …

Patients who survive infection with the Ebola virus often continue to face numerous health problems. New research finds 80 percent of Ebola survivors suffer disabilities one year after being discharged from the hospital. Approximately 11,000 people died in the Ebola outbreak that hit West Africa from 2014 to 2016; tens …

On a recent morning, a handful of young people unloaded potted saplings to plant along the curbside in a program that brings greenery to Los Angeles neighborhoods. The LA Conservation Corps is working to restore trees lost to disease, drought and the kind of construction that leaves little space for …

SpaceX has unveiled a sleek white spacesuit for astronauts on its crewed flights coming up next year. Chief executive Elon Musk made the big reveal via Instagram on Wednesday. He says it’s not him in the new suit, rather a SpaceX engineer. SpaceX is developing a crew version of its …

Food alone cannot solve the world’s malnutrition crises but only three countries are looking beyond hunger to the other major driver, according to a global study released Thursday. Water, sanitation and hygiene, usually treated by governments and NGOs as a separate policy area from food and nutrition, make up the …

U.S. wildlife managers erred when they declined to list as endangered a small population of grizzly bears in the remote reaches of Idaho and northwest Montana, a federal judge has ruled in what conservationists on Wednesday hailed as a huge victory. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014 determined …

Fireflies can be found around the world. But only in a handful of places on earth will you find the species of fireflies that synchronize their light. VOA’s Masha Mason went to one of those special places, in the mountains of Tennessee, to brings us a dazzling light show. …

Engineers at a lab in Florida have been working quietly for 2½ years on building one of the most powerful magnets in the world. And on Monday, they succeeded. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory — whose main location is housed at Florida State University — met its goal and …

A federal research vessel will launch on a cruise this week to study how Beaufort Sea wind affects plant and animal life in a changing Arctic Ocean. The Sikuliaq, owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will depart Friday from Nome for the …

When diving in the Gulf of Maine a few years back, Jennifer Dijkstra expected to be swimming through a flowing kelp forest that had long served as a nursery and food for juvenile fish and lobster. But Dijkstra, a University of New Hampshire marine biologist, saw only a patchy seafloor …

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered a halt to research on the potential health hazards of people who live near mountaintop coal mining operations. The U.S. Interior Department ordered the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to end a study of surface coal mining sites in the Appalachian …

Authorities in Japan are trying to decide what to do with the hundreds of thousands of metric tons of contaminated water being stored at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which went into meltdown following a 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It is estimated the huge water storage tanks surrounding the …

Authorities in Japan are trying to decide what to do with the hundreds of thousands of metric tons of contaminated water being stored at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which went into meltdown following a 2011 earthquake and tsunami. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Tokyo, plant operator TEPCO says …

Heat from deep within the earth is an underused source of renewable energy. The United States is the world’s largest producer of geothermal energy, but it makes up less than 1 percent of the nation’s power generation. By contrast, geothermal plants in the Philippines and Iceland contribute around 30 percent …

There is a saying that “lightning never strikes twice” in any location. The same could be said for a total solar eclipse over the United States, a rare event … except in a small patch of the United States that includes a small Missouri town, a place VOA’s Kane Farabaugh …

California rancher John Wick says the Marin Carbon Project could help save the world from climate change. “How would you possibly know, looking out at this beautiful day in front of us, that the Earth is crashing?” he asks, rhetorically.  “But when scientists measure it and see the effect of …

A rare total solar eclipse began in the Western state of Oregon Monday, as millions of people across the U.S. are watching the phenomenon from the Pacific to the Atlantic for the first time in 99 years. …

Millions of people across the United States watched a rare total solar eclipse which darkened the skies from the Pacific to the Atlantic for the first time in 99 years. The eclipse began Monday morning in the Western state of Oregon, causing the temperature to drop significantly as the moon …

China has been an “incredible partner” in cracking down on synthetic opioids seen as fueling fast-rising overdose deaths in the United States, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Monday during a visit to the country considered the source of many of the deadly substances sought by addicts. …

Millions of Americans converged on a narrow corridor stretching from Oregon to South Carolina to watch the moon blot out the midday sun Monday for a wondrous couple of minutes in the first total solar eclipse to sweep coast to coast in 99 years. Veteran eclipse watchers warned the uninitiated …

A fourth-grade class at a suburban Kansas City school erupted in wonder when they tried on their solar eclipse glasses for the first time and turned toward the sun for an eclipse “practice.”   “The sun looks like the moon!” “It’s really dark!” “There’s just a little circle of light!” …