Health ministers of the G20 leading economies, meeting for the first time Saturday, agreed to work together to tackle issues such as a growing resistance to antibiotics and to start implementing national action plans by the end of 2018. Germany, which holds the G20 presidency this year, said it was …

A warmer, wetter climate is helping push dozens of Eastern U.S. trees to the north and, surprisingly, west, a new study finds. The eastern white pine is going west, more than 80 miles (130 kilometers) since the early 1980s. The eastern cottonwood has been heading 77 miles north (124 kilometers), …

Norway is repairing the entrance of a “doomsday” seed vault on an Arctic island after an unexpected thaw of permafrost let water into a building meant as a deep freeze to safeguard the world’s food supplies. The water, limited to the 15-meter (50-foot) entrance hall in the melt late last …

The World Health Organization has delivered dramatic news about the causes of death for young people the world over. Governments and health agencies have made great strides in reducing deaths of young children through immunization and programs that address maternal and infant care. But adolescents have somehow fallen through the …

Commercial development of the globe’s huge reserves of a frozen fossil fuel known as “combustible ice” has moved closer to reality after Japan and China successfully extracted the material from the seafloor off their coastlines.   But experts said Friday that large-scale production remains many years away, and if not …

In New York, where buildings outnumber green spaces, some people have small gardens to grow some of their own food. Now, another garden is growing in New York in a very unusual location. On a barge, floating on a river, a variety of crops are being nurtured. VOA’s Deborah Block …

Scientists have discovered a possible cure for all five known Ebola viruses, one of which ravaged West Africa in recent years. The so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies were discovered in the blood of a survivor of the West African epidemic, which ran from late 2013 to mid-2016. The deadly virus killed …

Heavy rain shaped the Martian landscape billions of years ago, according to a new study. According to researchers at the Smithsonian Institution and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, rain on Mars once carved river beds and created valleys much like rain on Earth has, and does. It no …

Colon cancer patients who adopt a healthy lifestyle after treatment could potentially reduce their risk of death from a recurrence by more than 40 percent, according to new research. The findings were released ahead of a conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the world’s largest organization of clinical …

An ongoing measles outbreak in Minnesota has shined a light on the fact many Somali immigrants choose not to vaccinate their children.    According to the Minnesota Department of Health, 63 measles cases have been reported statewide as of May 16, and 53 of those cases were Minnesotans of Somali …

Cuba said on Thursday 1,847 residents had so far contracted the mosquito-borne Zika virus, warning that certain provinces on the Caribbean island still had high rates of infestation despite a series of measures to stave off the epidemic. At the start of the global Zika outbreak, Cuba managed for months …

Google’s computer programs are gaining a better understanding of the world, and now it wants them to handle more of the decision-making for the billions of people who use its services. CEO Sundar Pichai and other top executives brought Google’s audacious ambition into sharper focus Wednesday at an annual conference …

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is making his first trip overseas to Liberia, the West African country where Ebola killed more than 4,800 people.   Price on Thursday praised Liberia for its “remarkable cooperation” on health care issues. He toured a community that was hit hard by …

The HPV vaccine that helps prevent cervical cancer in women also might lower the risk in young men of oral infections that can cause mouth and throat cancers, a new study finds. These cancers are rising fast, especially in men, and research suggests that HPV, the human papillomavirus, is spreading …

The Tyrannosaurus rex had jaws and teeth strong enough to “pulverize” bones, a new study suggests. The pressure the huge dinosaur could muster when biting was equal to the “weight of three small cars simultaneously generating world record tooth pressures,” researchers from Florida State University and Oklahoma State University said. …

Health workers are monitoring more than 400 people amid an Ebola outbreak in a remote corner of Congo where already three deaths have been blamed on the virus, the World Health Organization said Thursday.   An experimental vaccine has been developed since the West African epidemic in 2014-2016 that left …

We producing nearly 300 million tons of plastic every year, half of which is used once, then thrown away. In the United States, we discard more than 33 million tons of plastics, and only a little more than 14 percent is recycled or used as fuel. The rest ends up …

Despite the health warnings, smoking in many places is still the “thing to do.” For those who have quit but still want to hang out with their smoking friends, a French design group has the Sifflu. It lets people act like they are smoking while teaching them how to breathe, …

Most doctors did not discuss the cost of cancer treatment with patients, spent less than two minutes on it when they did, and usually did so only after patients brought it up, a study that taped hundreds of visits at several large hospitals finds. Cancer patients are three times more …

Scientists say they have identified the “sea monster” that washed ashore on an Indonesian beach. The badly decomposing carcass measures over 15 meters long and baffled scientists since it washed up on Seram Island last week. Marine biologists now believe the carcass is a dead baleen whale, largely because of …

Pregnant women who come down with the flu are at greater risk of illness requiring hospitalization. A new study found that in resource-poor countries, flu vaccination reduced the risk of illness to mother and baby.   An estimated 40 percent of the world’s population lives in subtropical and tropical zones, …

A regional drought has displaced more than half a million people in Somalia and left the country at risk of famine. A cholera outbreak is further complicating relief efforts, in particular in the southern part of the country where some villages remain under al-Shabab control. Bay Regional Hospital, the biggest …

The beaches on a remote, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean have the highest amount of plastic debris in the world. Researchers from the University of Tasmania say Henderson Island, which is more than 5,000 kilometer from any major population center, is strewn with roughly 37.7 million …

Florida’s Indian River lagoon is considered the most biologically diverse estuary in the Northern Hemisphere. But it is facing a serious threat to the plants and animals in its waters. The water’s surface is increasingly dotted with thousands of dead fish, manatees, birds and other creatures. Faiza Elmasry has more …

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Sunday a second case of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo after an outbreak this week of 17 other suspected cases. Health officials are trying to trace 125 people thought to be linked to the cases identified in the remote northeastern province of …