Year: 2020

Russian scientists are digging out fragments of a well-preserved woolly mammoth skeleton found by reindeer herders a few days ago at a lake in northern Siberia.The herders initially found parts of the animal’s skull, lower jaw, several ribs and foot fragments with sinews still intact…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders aimed at lowering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, as he faces an uphill reelection battle and criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has previously proposed most of the changes made by…

A few weeks ago researchers at Oxford University announced promising results from early trials of their version of a COVID-19 vaccine. In early trial results on just over 1,000 volunteers, the vaccine appeared to be safe and triggered an immune response. VOA spoke with one…

The U.N. weather agency warned Friday that average temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in ice sea off…

As he visited a London medical center to promote a flu immunization program Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson referred to opponents of vaccinations as "nuts."  Johnson made the off-hand comment as he chatted with nurses about the importance of a widespread flu vaccination plan…

Three countries launched missions officially kicking off the summer space race to Mars.  A satellite snaps pictures of the sun in ways Earth-based cameras can’t.  And the comet NASA calls a “natural firework” streaks the skies again.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi ...

An unmanned spacecraft blasted off Thursday on a yearlong journey to Mars, beginning one of China’s most ambitious space missions to date.The Tianwen-1 lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch site on China’s southern Hainan Island aboard a Long March 5 rocket as hundreds of…

One of the great mysteries of the coronavirus is how quickly it rocketed around the world.  It first flared in central China and, within three months, was on every continent but Antarctica, shutting down daily life for millions. Behind the rapid spread was something that…

An unmanned spacecraft blasted off Thursday on a yearlong journey to Mars, beginning one of China’s most ambitious space missions to date.The Tianwen-1 lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch site on China’s southern Hainan Island aboard a Long March 5 rocket as hundreds of…

President Donald Trump has announced the U.S. government will provide an additional $5 billion in aid, equipment and training to the nation’s nursing homes, many of which are hot spots in the coronavirus pandemic.He said COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, poses "the greatest…

The U.S. government will pay $1.95 billion to American drug maker Pfizer and German biotech company BioNTech SE for 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, if it proves to be safe and effective. The companies said Wednesday they finalized a deal with the U.S. Department…

Laboratories across the U.S. are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are actually undercutting the pandemic response.With the U.S. tally of infections at 3.9 million Wednesday and new cases surging, the bottlenecks are creating problems for workers…

The European Southern Observatory on Wednesday released the first image ever captured by a telescope of multiple planets orbiting around a sunlike star.In a statement, the ESO said the image was taken by its Extremely Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert.This image from the European…

COVID-19 tests that take an hour or less and can be done at doctors’ offices, workplaces, or even at home are under development. They could have a big impact on the course of the pandemic in the United States, where long lines for tests and long…

COVID-19 tests that take an hour or less and can be done at doctors’ offices, workplaces, or even at home are under development. They could have a big impact on the course of the pandemic in the United States, where long lines for tests and long…

A new study indicates that the accelerated melting of Arctic permafrost could release as much as 40 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere not previously accounted for in global emissions estimates.  Permafrost is the thick layer of soil in the world's Arctic and Antarctic…

A study of the Arctic says polar bears are one of the most threatened species on earth because of melting sea ice caused by climate change, and without aggressive steps, the animals could be extinct by the end of the century. The University of Toronto study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, says that polar bears rely on sea ice to…

U.S. space agency astronauts Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy Tuesday floated out of the International Space Station (ISS) on their fourth and final spacewalk to complete the upgrade of the station’s power supply system.Tuesday’s spacewalk is the fourth for the astronauts in under a month,…

With over 14.7 million confirmed novel coronavirus cases and nearly 610,000 fatalities, researchers are reporting progress in the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine against the disease.  Two different experimental vaccines -- one developed in a joint venture between Britain’s Oxford University and British-Swedish drug…

Officials in the Bahamas say that starting Wednesday, it will ban travelers from the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials say the large increase in COVID-19 cases throughout the United States and other countries is the reason for the ban; however, some international travel…

Scientists at Oxford University say their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot.British researchers first began testing the vaccine in April in about 1,000 people, half of whom…

Cameroon's medical authorities say over 200,000 children have not received routine vaccinations on schedule since March, when the country had its first case of COVID-19.  Parents are refusing to take their kids to hospitals because they fear they may be infected with the virus, which has spread to nearly…

Astrophysicists on Monday published the largest-ever 3D map of the Universe, the result of an analysis of more than 4 million galaxies and ultra-bright, energy-packed quasars.The efforts of hundreds of scientists from about 30 institutions worldwide have yielded a "complete story of the expansion of…