Stories by Meghan Bartels

Cosmic Microwave Background Stage 4, a top-priority project for U.S. astrophysics, was designed to make breakthrough observations of the universe’s very earliest moments. Now the U.S. government says it can’t currently support the project’s construction at the South Pole

People may someday have a surprisingly familiar tool to prevent viral infections: one of the antibiotics found in a common ointment

A common species of cockroach hails from Asia, according to new research that tracks its spread around the globe

The same massive sunspot cluster that gave Earth multiple nights of stunning aurora displays has now produced the largest flare of the current solar cycle

Understanding how avian influenza jumped into cows can help shape the path to stopping the virus’s spread

“We should not make it harder for people to access abortion,” says a researcher who has studied the impacts on people who seek the procedure and are denied

Researchers say this may be the first observation of a nonhuman animal purposefully treating a wound with a medicinal plant

As climate change warms the poles, precious Antarctic meteorites will melt their way down out of scientists’ reach

Four years after a mysterious respiratory virus jumped from animals into humans and launched the COVID pandemic, wary epidemiologists are keeping a close eye on a strain of avian influenza that is spreading among U.S. dairy cows

Amid Earth’s fourth global coral bleaching event, a leading expert says tackling climate change is the key to fighting back.

Here’s what a chef, a vet and two anthropologists have to say about eating periodical cicadas

Ancestors of so-called soft corals may have developed bioluminescence in the earliest days of deep-ocean living

NASA scientists spent months coaxing the 46-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft back into healthy communication

Plants are just trying to reproduce; immune systems are just trying to keep us safe

“A mass bleaching event is, by definition, a mass mortality event,” a leading coral reef expert says

However much outdoor space you have, here’s how to use it for conservation

In just one year of observations, a program that is creating the largest 3D map of the universe to date has sniffed out hints that dark energy may be stranger than scientists supposed

During the total solar eclipse, skywatchers saw ruby-colored prominences sticking out of the moon's shadow. Here's the science of those red dots

Scientific American staffers headed to locations ranging from Texas to Vermont to try to catch a glimpse of the total solar eclipse

Periodical cicadas have a clever hack to help them figure out when to emerge after more than a decade underground

Predicting what the sun will look like during a total solar eclipse is a helpful exercise for scientists in the long quest to understand how our star works

Celebrate the April 8 total solar eclipse with these livestreams from NASA, the NSF, Scientific American, and more

Scientists are finally getting their hands on enough data to begin to understand how animals react to a total solar eclipse

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is hiding a strange spiral in its icy heart—and it may tell scientists about the comet’s innards