Year: 2020

The genetic mutation that causes Down syndrome increases the risk of intellectual disabilities, and an early death from autoimmune diseases and pneumonia. But it also protects from some cancers, and it often leads to people valued for their kindness and joy. Recently, researchers discovered a major clue as to why the genetic disorder does these things: The mutation increases inflammation. Shelley Schlender explains how this knowledge may lead to healthier lives for those with Down syndrome.Camera: Shelley Schlender  ...

The U.S. military’s mystery space plane rocketed into orbit again Sunday, this time with an extra load of science experiments.It’s the sixth flight of an X-37B, a solar-powered plane that's flown by remote control without a crew.Officials aren't saying how long the spacecraft will remain in orbit this time or the purpose of the mission. But a senior vice president for X-37B developer Boeing, Jim Chilton, noted each mission has been progressively longer.The previous mission lasted a record two years, with a touchdown shrouded in darkness at NASA's Kennedy Space Center last year.The winged spacecraft resembles NASA’s old shuttles, but is just one-quarter the size at 29 feet (9 meters) long. The one just launched features an extra compartment for experiments, including several for NASA and the U.S. Naval Research…

Thais streamed into shopping malls on Sunday, once again enjoying their air-conditioned oases as the country eased one of the restrictions imposed to fight the coronavirus.The government allowed malls to reopen after the number of new virus cases in Thailand dwindled to single digits for all but one day over more than two weeks. Malls had been closed since March.Student Baiplu Chaonuam expressed her relief at returning to a Bangkok mall. “I started to get used to staying home, but to be able to come back out and look around at things is an improvement from staying in,” she said.The mall experience, however, may not be as carefree as it was before the virus, with measures instituted to reduce the danger that the malls will become new infection hotspots.Thermal scanners…

Scientists around the world are working to battle the coronavirus - an effort that extends to a space-travel lab that worked overtime to help sick earthlings. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has This Week in Space. ...

One August day in 2017, a 31-year-old man with a cough boarded a crowded minibus in Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo.The man was dead before he could reach his destination.That touched off the most lethal outbreak of pneumonic plague in decades. By the end of November, more than 2,400 people had been infected and 209 had died.Basketball teams from around the Indian Ocean region were in Madagascar at the time for a championship tournament. A coach from the Seychelles died and a South African player fell ill. The risk of an international outbreak loomed.To stamp it out, health officials needed to break the chains of transmission: find the people who had come into contact with each infected individual and prevent them from spreading the disease to anyone else.It's known as contact tracing.…

Scientists around the world are working to battle the coronavirus - an effort that extends to a space-travel lab that worked overtime to help sick earthlings. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has This Week in Space. ...

Burundi has expelled four officials from the World Health Organization (WHO), declaring them persona non grata and ordering them to leave the country by Friday, a leaked memo from the country’s foreign ministry reveals. The decision comes days before the May 20 presidential elections and amid a global coronavirus pandemic.Bernard Ntahiraja, the foreign affairs assistant minister, did not provide an explanation for the expulsion. The WHO's Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said that the organization “remain[s] very willing to...support their [Burundi’s] response to COVID-19.” John Nkengasong, the head of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement that he found the decision to hold elections in a time of the COVID-19 crisis irresponsible. “We have to collectively deny the virus any space to transmit,” he said.Opposition candidate Léonce Ngendakumana…

America faces the "darkest winter in modern history" unless leaders act decisively to prevent a rebound of the coronavirus, says a government whistleblower who alleges he was ousted from his job after warning the Trump administration to prepare for the pandemic. Immunologist Dr. Rick Bright makes his sobering prediction in testimony prepared for his appearance Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Aspects of his complaint about early administration handling of the crisis are expected to be backed up by testimony from an executive of a company that manufactures, respirator masks. A federal watchdog agency has found "reasonable grounds" that Bright was removed from his post as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority after sounding the alarm at the Department of Health and Human Services. Bright…

The European Medicines Agency predicted that there could be licensed drugs to treat the new coronavirus in the next few months and that a vaccine might even be approved in early 2021, in a "best-case scenario." Dr. Marco Cavaleri, who heads the European regulator's vaccines department, told a media briefing on Thursday that approving medicines to treat COVID-19 might be possible "before the summer," citing ongoing clinical trials. Recent early results for the drug remdesivir suggested it could help patients recover from the coronavirus faster, although longer-term data is still needed to confirm any benefit.   Although it typically takes years to develop a vaccine, Cavaleri said that if some of the shots already being tested prove to be effective, they could be licensed as early as the beginning of…

Cancer deaths have dropped more in states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act than in states that did not, new research reveals. The report Wednesday is the first evidence tying cancer survival to the health care change, which began in 2014 after the law known as "Obamacare" took full effect, said one study leader, Dr. Anna Lee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "For a policy to have this amount of impact in a short amount of years" is remarkable, because cancer often takes a long time to develop and prove fatal, she said. Lee discussed the results in an American Society of Clinical Oncology news conference as part of its annual meeting later this month. The law let states expand Medicaid eligibility and offer subsidies to help…

A new comet that was discovered in April using data from an orbiting observatory may be visible to the naked eye in the coming weeks. The comet was first spotted by amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo, who used data gathered by an instrument onboard the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite. The instrument, known as the Solar Wind Anisotropies, or SWAN, maps the constantly outflowing solar wind in interplanetary space by focusing on a wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted by hydrogen atoms.  The new comet was picked up by the instrument because it is releasing huge amounts of water, about 1.3 tons per second. Though its official name is C/2020 F8, the comet has become known as Comet SWAN for the instrument that aided in its discovery. It…

As South Korea grapples with a new spike in coronavirus infections thought to be linked to nightspots in Seoul, including several popular with gay men, it's also seeing rising homophobia that's making it difficult for sexual minorities to come forward for diagnostic tests. The first confirmed patient in the new coronavirus cluster was a 29-year-old man who visited five nightclubs and bars in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment neighborhood in a single night before testing positive for the virus last Wednesday. Further investigation has since found more than 100 infections that appear linked to the nightspots. A Christian church-founded newspaper, Kookmin Ilbo, reported last week that the places the man visited in Itaewon on May 2 included a gay club. The report was followed by a flood of anti-gay slurs on social…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic first erupted in China this winter, hopes have lingered that the outbreak would die down with the change of seasons.  "A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat," U.S. Stalls are shuttered at Hong Lim Hawker Centre in Singapore, May 10, 2020, amid the coronavirus outbreak. COVID-19 cases in Singapore recently spiked to 700 to 800 per day."We can see that this virus has spread all over the world, with many different temperatures," said Universidad Católica de Valencia bioengineering professor Angel Serrano Aroca. "I believe that there is an effect of weather conditions, but I think that this virus is so contagious that there are other factors that are much more important." Population density, social-distancing measures and public health tools such as…

Climate scientists expect above-normal temperatures over the next three months, despite the absence of an El Nino, a natural phenomenon that tends to boost global temperatures.   In past years, record heat has occurred in El Nino years. But that is changing according to the global seasonal climate update from the World Meteorological Organization. The WMO said that April 2020, a non-El Nino period, is tied as the warmest month on record with April 2016, when there was a strong El Nino, as well as climate change. WMO spokeswoman Claire Nullis said all the years subsequent to 2016 have been very warm without El Nino, including 2019, which was the second warmest year on record.  She notes the trend has continues into this year.  “Global temperatures in January, February and March were also the warmest or second warmest year on record, according to international data bases," Nullis said.  "So, we are seeing now that…

Since the COVID-19 pandemic first erupted in China this winter, hopes have lingered that the outbreak would die down with the change of seasons.  "A lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat," U.S. Stalls are shuttered at Hong Lim Hawker Centre in Singapore, May 10, 2020, amid the coronavirus outbreak. COVID-19 cases in Singapore recently spiked to 700 to 800 per day."We can see that this virus has spread all over the world, with many different temperatures," said Universidad Católica de Valencia bioengineering professor Angel Serrano Aroca. "I believe that there is an effect of weather conditions, but I think that this virus is so contagious that there are other factors that are much more important." Population density, social-distancing measures and public health tools such as…