Year: 2020

Mexico now has the third most COVID-19 deaths in the world, behind Brazil and the United States, where a hurricane bearing down on the East Coast on Saturday is threatening to complicate efforts to contain the virus.Hurricane Isaias' imminent arrival forced the closure of some…

Connie Culp, the recipient of the first partial face transplant in the U.S., has died at 57, almost a dozen years after the groundbreaking operation.The Cleveland Clinic, where her surgery had been performed in 2008, said Saturday that Culp died Wednesday at the Ohio clinic…

A pair of NASA astronauts face the final and most important part of their SpaceX test flight: returning to Earth with a rare splashdown.Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken took part in a farewell ceremony Saturday at the International Space Station, several hours ahead of their…

There are more than 17.6 million worldwide COVID-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins statistics.  The U.S. continues to lead in the number of infections with more than 4.5 million, followed by Brazil with 2.6 million cases, and India with almost 1.7 million.Mexico has replaced Britain…

Amid the chaos of the pandemic's early days, doctors who faced the first coronavirus onslaught reached across oceans and language barriers in an unprecedented effort to advise colleagues trying to save lives in the dark.With no playbook to follow and no time to wait for…

The United States has passed the marker of 150,000 deaths from COVID-19, as some spots around the country continue to see rising case numbers. The political, economic and public health crises are a source of ongoing concern for lawmakers. But the nation’s top health experts…

The World Health Organization on Thursday warned Africa against easing coronavirus restrictions as the number of infections on the continent has doubled in the past month.WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said at a virtual news conference, “We are concerned that ... we will…

NASA aims its new rover to an ancient Martian river delta searching for evidence of past life.  A French astronaut is scheduled to become the first European astronaut aboard a SpaceX capsule destined for the International Space Station. And Virgin Galactic unveils a new spaceship.…

NASA's next-generation Mars rover Perseverance is set for liftoff from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Thursday on a mission to search for traces of potential past life on Earth's planetary neighbor.The U.S. space agency's $2.4 billion mission is scheduled for launch at 7:50 a.m. ET and…

Two coronavirus vaccines entered the final phase of testing this week. There are now five shots in the pipeline. Scientists expect to know by the end of the year if any of them are safe and effective. VOA's Steve Baragona has this update. ...

Living microbes, possibly millions of years old, have been discovered more than five kilometers beneath the  Pacific Ocean’s surface, in an area believed to have been devoid of life.In a study published Tuesday, Japanese and American scientists described what they found in sediment samples taken…

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has the world in its grip. Not since the Spanish flue outbreak of 1918 has a disease spread across the world so far and so fast. But how did we get here, and what have we learned? This is…

One of the most frustrating symptoms of COVID-19 coronavirus is the loss of the sense of smell and scientists now say they think they understand why it happens. The experts writing in the journal Science Advances said the coronavirus infiltrates the cells that provide major structural support to sensory neurons -- the neurons that detect odors and send those messages to the brain. Since the sense of smell…