Stories by Meghan Bartels

Evidence shows that Medicaid improves people’s health and is particularly vital for babies, older people in need of long-term care and people in rural communities

Astronomers have never had this much data available this quickly before

These graphics will guide you through science-based vaccine guidelines for children and adults

The bird flu was long known to poultry farmers. Here’s why the dairy industry was caught off guard by its jump to cattle.

Astronomy fans can zoom in practically forever into the stunning first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Data from beach cleanups show that banning or taxing single-use plastic bags makes a difference in ecosystems

Solar Orbiter isn’t the first spacecraft to study the sun’s poles—but it’s the first to send back photographs

In recent years COVID shots joined flu shots as an annual offering at most neighborhood pharmacies. But the current administration has thrown that into uncertainty

Clouds of dust blown off the Saharan Desert into the southeastern U.S. could affect local weather and make sunrises and sunsets particularly vivid

Scientific American spoke with the astronomer who has contributed to the discovery of two thirds of Saturn’s known moons

Tornadoes are predicted across swaths of the U.S. in the coming days, likely adding to this year’s already high tally of such storms

The sun has produced stunning auroras on Earth in recent years as solar activity has peaked—but expect more in coming years

Pyrotechnic chemistry drives the Vatican’s recipes for the black and white smoke used to announce papal election outcomes

Happy anniversary to the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched on April 24, 1990

Dimethyl sulfide is in the news after NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected relatively high levels of it in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18 b

A long-lost slab of Earth’s crust may be pulling away the bottom of the oldest part of North America, scientists say

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provided a closer look at the aftermath of a star that wreaked violence on its planet

Scientists estimate there are about 4,000 species of native bees in the U.S.—and they’re both cooler and ecologically more important than honeybees

The commercial astronauts onboard SpaceX’s Fram2 mission are flying closer to Earth’s poles than anyone has before, offering an intriguing opportunity for auroral science

Measles is not a disease to take lightly—but it is also very preventable with vaccines

President Donald Trump is threatening steep tariffs on virtually all imports. Here’s what that means and what economics research suggests would be the impact

A tiny, woolly flower found hiding in Texas’s Big Bend National Park shows the intriguing strangeness of sunflowers

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar lander snapped incredible photographs of the March 13–14 total lunar eclipse, as seen from the moon

In the U.S. 42 species of birds have low and steeply declining populations that put them on the brink of disaster, scientists say