Inside a locked vault at Johnson Space Center is treasure few have seen and fewer have touched.The restricted lab is home to hundreds of pounds of moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts close to a half-century ago.  And for the first time in decades, NASA is about to open some of the pristine samples and let geologists take a crack at them with 21st-century technology.What better way to mark this summer’s 50th anniversary of humanity’s first footsteps on the moon than by sharing a bit of the lunar loot.“It’s sort of a coincidence that we’re opening them in the year of the anniversary,” explained NASA’s Apollo sample curator Ryan Zeigler, covered head to toe in a white protective suit with matching fabric boots, gloves and hat.“But certainly the anniversary increased the awareness and the fact that we’re going back to the moon.”With the golden anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz …

Synthetic opioid use is booming, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a worldwide drug report that showed deaths in the United States from overdoses still rising and a “crisis” of tramadol use emerging in parts of Africa.The estimated number of people using opioids – an umbrella term for drugs ranging from opium and derivatives such as heroin to synthetics like fentanyl and tramadol – in 2017 was 56% higher than in 2016, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said.While that surge, to 53.4 million people worldwide, was due to more data being available thanks to surveys in Nigeria and India, it also highlighted the scale of the problem despite a drought-related fall in opium production last year in the world’s biggest producer, Afghanistan.Synthetic opioids like fentanyl continue to be the main cause of opioid overdose deaths in the United States, which rose 13% to more than 47,000 in …

SpaceX launched its heftiest rocket with 24 research satellites Tuesday, a middle-of-the-night rideshare featuring a deep space atomic clock, solar sail, a clean and green rocket fuel testbed, and even human ashes.It was the third flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, but the first ordered by the military.The Defense Department mission is expected to provide data to certify the Falcon Heavy — and reused boosters — for future national security launches. It marked the military’s first ride on a recycled rocket.Both side boosters landed back at Cape Canaveral several minutes after liftoff, just as they did after launching in April. But the new core booster missed an ocean platform, not unexpected for this especially difficult mission, SpaceX noted.“It was a long shot,” tweeted SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk.SpaceX did manage for the first time to catch the fairing, or nose cone, in a giant net on an offshore …

Midwifery students in London are learning to bring new life into the world in a radically new way with the help of augmented reality (AR) technology.Using AR headsets and lifelike models of full-term mothers, trainee midwives at Middlesex University can take part in fully simulated births, which the university’s clinical staff hope will both hone their clinical skills and leave them better prepared to face challenges rarely seen in day-to-day practice.AR technology offers users an interactive experience in which objects in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated information.Midwifery educator Sarah Chitongo said the AR system allowed students to understand better the birthing process by displaying an interactive representation of a patient’s anatomy.”It allows you to see a visual picture of the actual anatomy itself, which is raised out of the normal body, and you can step in, walk around and have an internal view,” Chitongo told Reuters.Chitongo cited high-risk …

Unable to send disease fighters to help battle one of the deadliest Ebola outbreaks in history, U.S. health officials are turning to basketball hall of famer Dikembe Mutombo for help.   Mutombo, regarded as one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history and a well-known philanthropist in his native Congo, recorded radio and video spots designed to persuade people to take precautions and get care that might stop the disease’s spread.   The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began posting the spots Monday on its YouTube channel and on the agency’s website . Officials are trying to get radio and TV stations in the Democratic Republic of Congo to air them. More than 2,200 people have been reported ill — and about 1,500 have died — since an Ebola outbreak was declared in August in eastern Congo. It is the second deadliest outbreak of the lethal virus, which …

At least 152 children have died in an encephalitis outbreak during the month of June in India’s eastern state of Bihar, according to local health authorities. Following a petition, India’s supreme court ordered an investigation into the epidemic.Acute encephalitis syndrome, sometimes referred to as ‘brain fever’, has claimed lives in 20 of Bihar’s 38 districts.  In particular, the disease has gripped the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, reaching epidemic proportions in a region already stricken with poverty and poor child health.In 2014, an outbreak of encephalitis killed 350 children in Muzaffarpur.  A petition filed to India’s supreme court sought to end the current epidemic, accusing local and regional governments of being negligent in their response.“[Encephalitis] is completely curable and lives of young children are being lost due to the inaction of state machinery,” the petition read.“Most of the deaths are occurring due to lack of medical facilities in the area of …

Thirty-three new cases of measles were reported last week, with 1,077 active cases total within the United States, according to health officials — the worst outbreak in over 25 years, when 2,126 cases were recorded in 1992.Nearly 30 states have reported cases, with outbreaks of over three cases ongoing in California, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington state. New York’s Rockland County declared a state of emergency in late May, over a measles outbreak in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.Measles was declared eradicated within the U.S. in 2000, four decades after elimination was first announced as a goal. A disease is considered eliminated when a full year passes with no active transmissions. If the current outbreak isn’t under control by October 2019, the U.S. will lose its measles elimination status.“That loss would be a huge blow for the nation and erase the hard work done by all levels of public health,” the …

A group of Oregon state Republican senators have gone into hiding to stop the passage of a landmark climate change legislation. The western state’s House bill 2020 would set limits to carbon emissions with permits auctioned off to polluting industries. Republicans say the bill would hurt rural Oregonians. Democrats have a majority in both chambers of the state’s congress and the bill is likely to pass if it comes to the floor, which cannot happen unless there is a quorum of two-thirds of senators present. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the state governor, a Democrat, has given authorization to state police to track them down. …

 Washington remains focused on Iran, as the Trump administration signals firm resolve towards Tehran days after President Donald Trump halted a military strike ordered in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. military drone over international waters in the Strait of Hormuz. VOA’s Michael Bowman has this report.   …

An unprecedented shutdown of mobile data across swathes of Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state entered a third day Sunday, blocking villagers from the internet in areas where the army is accused of abuses in its battle with ethnic rebels. Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) ordered all mobile phone operators on Friday to suspend internet data in nine townships across Rakhine and neighboring Chin State. “As a basis for its request, the MoTC has referenced disturbances of the peace and internet services to coordinate illegal activities,” Telenor Myanmar said in a statement. The decree was made under the Telecommunications Law, hitting all mobile operators for an unspecified period. Myanmar’s army is fighting ethnic Rakhine rebels who want greater autonomy from the central state. The Rakhine are Buddhists and are also fighting in northern Chin state which borders their homeland. The Rakhine accuse the army of committing abuses — including arbitrary …

Early poll results put Mauritania ruling party candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani comfortably ahead after Saturday’s presidential election, taking 50.41% of the ballot with more than half votes counted, data from the electoral commission showed. His nearest rival, Biram Dah Abeid, a prominent black Mauritanian slavery campaigner, has got 18.72% so far, the figures showed on Sunday. Mohamed Ould Boubacar, who is backed by Mauritania’s biggest Islamist party, has 18.13%, with support for the other two candidates in single figures. About 850,000 votes out of 1.5 million have been counted. The election was the first in the sparsely populated Saharan nation’s history since independence from France in 1960 to choose a successor to a democratically elected president. Outgoing President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz surprised many of his compatriots and international observers by stepping aside after serving the maximum two five-year elected terms in Mauritania, a country of fewer than five million …