After $1B gift, most Johns Hopkins medical students won’t pay tuition
Most medical students at Johns Hopkins University will no longer pay tuition thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Monday. Starting in the fall, the donation will cover full tuition for medical students from families earning less…
American mountaineer found mummified in Peru 22 years after vanishing
LIMA, Peru — The preserved body of an American mountaineer — who disappeared 22 years ago while scaling a snowy peak in Peru — has been found after being exposed by climate change-induced ice melt, police said Monday. William Stampfl…
Park benches and grandmothers: Zimbabwe’s novel mental health therapy spreads overseas
Harare, Zimbabwe — After her son, the family’s shining light and only breadwinner, was arrested last year, Tambudzai Tembo went into meltdown. In Zimbabwe, where clinical mental health services are scarce, her chances of getting professional help were next to…
Torrid heat bakes millions in large swaths of US, setting records and fanning wildfires
Las Vegas — Roughly 130 million people were under threat over the weekend and into next week from a long-running heat wave that broke or tied records with dangerously high temperatures and is expected to shatter more from East Coast…
Oldest inhabited termite mounds have been active for 34,000 years
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Scientists in South Africa have been stunned to discover that termite mounds that are still inhabited in an arid region of the country are more than 30,000 years old, meaning they are the oldest known…
Fossils show huge salamanderlike predator with sharp fangs existed before the dinosaurs
WASHINGTON — Scientists have revealed fossils of a giant salamanderlike beast with sharp fangs that ruled waters before the first dinosaurs arrived. The predator, which was larger than a person, likely used its wide, flat head and front teeth to…
Sizzling sidewalks, unshaded playgrounds pose risk of burns
PHOENIX, Arizona — Ron Falk lost his right leg, had extensive skin grafting on the left one and is still recovering a year after collapsing on the searing asphalt outside a Phoenix convenience store where he stopped for a cold…
Pongamia trees offer renewable energy, plant-based protein
An ancient tree from India is now thriving in groves where citrus trees once flourished in Florida, and could help provide the nation with renewable energy. As large parts of the Sunshine State’s once-famous citrus industry have all but dried…
‘Ready to come out?’ Scientists emerge after year ‘on Mars’
washington — The NASA astronaut knocks loudly three times on what appears to be a nondescript door and calls cheerfully: “You ready to come out?” The reply is inaudible, but beneath his mask he appears to be grinning as he…
Anti-doping agency sharpens its tools for Paris Olympics
Lausanne, Switzerland — In the battle against drug use at the Paris Olympics, the International Testing Agency plans to deploy a more streamlined, high-tech approach to identify and target potential cheats. In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Benjamin Cohen, director…