Stories by Meghan Bartels

Records are starting to fall to the continuing heat dome that is covering much of the eastern U.S.

Tens of millions of people are already under heat alerts, and the worst is yet to come

High humidity and overnight low temperatures that are relatively hot will put tens of millions of people under heat alerts over the course of the coming week

Hundreds of staffers at the National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the National Science Foundation have signed public letters to leadership opposing the direction in which the agencies are headed

After photographs showed President Donald Trump with swollen ankles and bruised hands, the White House revealed he has chronic venous insufficiency—a blood vessel disease that affects circulation in the legs

Bird flu fears have focused on the poultry and dairy industries and human health. But wild animals are threatened, too—at scales no one fully understands

Bird flu was nearly everywhere in the U.S.—in chickens, cows, pet cats and even humans. Cases have gone down, but experts warn that it hasn’t disappeared

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