Britain’s Newcastle University says its scientists have received a license to create babies using DNA from three people, the first time such approval has been granted.   The license was granted by the country’s fertility regulator on Thursday, according to the university.   In December, British officials approved the “cautious …

Scientists can tell by your blood whether you have cancer cells, how well your organs are functioning, and if they’ve been affected by cancer. Now there’s a new blood test that could help prevent heart attacks and strokes. Jeff Meeusen, Ph.D., developed the test at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, …

The number of cases of Zika, dengue and chikungunya reported in Brazil during the first 6 weeks of the year is nearly 90 percent less than in the same period in 2016, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.   The ministry said in an email that 60,124 cases of the three …

Comfortable clothes are emerging as a source of plastic that’s increasingly ending up in the oceans and potentially contaminating seafood, according to Gulf Coast researchers launching a two-year study of microscopic plastics in the waters from south Texas to the Florida Keys. The project , led by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea …

Researchers have found that a less strenuous form of exercise known as whole-body vibration may work just as well as regular exercise in helping to control diabetes. WBV, as it’s called, could also benefit people who find it difficult to exercise.   Scientists say WBV transmits energy through the body …

Amid rapid urbanization, the HIV epidemic and increasing rates of non-communicable diseases, people in sub-Saharan Africa are especially vulnerable to kidney disease. Medical experts are meeting in Cameroon to examine ways of reducing the rising incidents of chronic kidney disease. A dialysis machine at the hemodialysis center in Cameroon’s capital …

The Trump administration may be ready to roll back some regulations covered by the Clean Air Act limiting some pollutants that contributed to smog-choked American cities in the 1970s. But new research from China suggests clean air can save millions of lives. More pollution, more deaths Researchers at the Chinese …

Springtime is allergy season, and many people suffer from recurring headaches and congestion. But while medication and nasal sprays provide relief to some patients, those with chronic sinus problems may need complex treatment and sometimes surgery. A breakthrough procedure called balloon sinuplasty is less invasive and has shown to be …

With a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, scientists at Purdue University are researching new methods for affordable large-scale monitoring of crucially important traits of industrial crops. VOA’s George Putic reports. …

Health experts say more than 700 people have died of malaria so far this year in Burundi, prompting the government to declare the disease an epidemic.   The determination was based on findings of a survey by Burundian and World Health Organization experts, said Josiane Nijimbere, Burundi’s Minister of Health. …

Victims of stroke often face years of grueling, physical therapy, if they can even find a qualified therapist. Now a Portuguese inventor has created a computer program that delivers high quality, monitored therapy, and it’s just a mouse click away. Faith Lapidus narrates this report from Kevin Enochs. …

Madrid’s city government announced plans on Monday to ban the oldest and most polluting vehicles from the city center by 2025 in a bid to crackdown on air pollution. The local government will prohibit the use within the city’s limits of gasoline cars registered before 2000 and diesel-powered cars registered …

It’s not every day that an unmanned scientific submarine makes international headlines, but this sub is named Boaty McBoatface, and it is about to embark on its first mission. The sub is operated by Britain’s National Environmental Research Council, which last year turned to the internet to name the group’s …

A leopard showed up in London this week, sharing space with the lions of Trafalgar Square. The cat was no more real than the famous bronze lions and was there to point out that big cats like leopards and lions are in trouble all around the world. VOA’s Kevin Enochs …

An emerging foodscape frontier offers opportunity for anyone to grow and eat organic. Brie Arthur shows Maryland residents how to grow food plants alongside flowers and shrubs as a way to increase bio-diversity and feed the community. Bronwyn Benito has the story. …

Two people are critically sick in San Francisco after drinking tea from the same Chinatown herbalist.    The tea leaves bought at Sun Wing Wo Trading Company contained the plant-based toxin aconite, the Department of Public Health said Friday.    A man in his 50s last month and a woman …

Extremely brief but powerful radio bursts coming from billions of light years away could be evidence of an advanced alien civilization, according to a new paper. Fast radio bursts, which are “millisecond-long flashes of radio emission” could be “leakage” from “planet-sized transmitters” that power alien spaceships over incredible distances. “Fast …

Twelve-year-old Janet Sylva of Gambia wants to be a doctor when she grows up, she says with a broad grin — one that surgeons in New York gave back to her after removing from her mouth one of the largest tumors they’d ever seen.   The 6-pound benign tumor was …

Air pollution takes the lives of more than half a million young children every year, according to the World Health Organization. An entrepreneur in London has come up pollution-busting face masks to protect kids from toxic air. …

It’s a major natural disaster that slowly grows in one place and then moves across a region, gaining intensity and size. As it spreads, it destroys land, ruins agriculture and tears apart communities, and it can kill people. It’s a drought. Researchers are just beginning to view droughts as this …

Sonia Papiu started her first year of residency as a psychiatrist in the Romanian city of Cluj in January, but she plans to move abroad within the year, seeking better learning opportunities and hospital conditions. She will not be alone. “I don’t think any of my colleagues are planning to …

For the first time, doctors have tied infection with the Zika virus to possible new heart problems in adults. The evidence so far is only in eight people in Venezuela, and is not enough to prove a link. It’s also too soon to know how often this might be happening. …

When humans finally land on Mars one of the first dishes made of locally grown vegetables may be the universally popular French fries. Researchers from the International Potato Center and the University of Engineering and Technology in Lima, Peru, say potatoes could grow in Martian soil, if they are given …

China is developing an advanced new spaceship capable of both flying in low-Earth orbit and landing on the moon, according to state media, in another bold step for a space program that equaled the U.S. in number of rocket launches last year.   The newspaper Science and Technology Daily cited …

The Earth’s atmosphere, and magnetic fields protect us from the damaging, and potentially deadly effects of gamma rays. But in space, and in some earthly disaster scenarios like a nuclear meltdown, it takes several feet of concrete or lead to keep us safe. But a new vest of flexible light …