Stories by Meghan Bartels

A “ghost particle” discovered by a detector in the Mediterranean carried 30 times more energy than any neutrino observed to date

From space weather to science missions, there’s a lot to be excited about in heliophysics this year.

The Los Angeles area is expecting rain increasing the risk of debris slides in the wildfire-scarred landscape

H5N1 avian influenza continues to spread amid commercial and backyard poultry, and additional cases have been reported in domestic cats

Snow’s appeal is more than just a fond nostalgia for childhood days away from school

Just as people often yawn or scratch themselves when they see someone else do so, for chimpanzees, peeing is contagious

Vast weather patterns can carry blasts of frigid air far from the polar regions—here’s how it works

Arctic shipping routes and burgeoning mining opportunities may be part of Greenland’s appeal to President-elect Donald Trump, but each comes with challenges as well

The science of the sun and its effects on the solar system is a sprawling discipline that expects a very exciting 2025

Will still more auroras ring out 2024, a year marked by the celestial displays?

Learn which molecules are responsible for giving Christmas trees their distinct, crisp-yet-spicy scent

See the year’s most striking images from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, NASA’s Mars rover and the best sky watching on offer

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, where’s your instruction manual? Here’s how to make the most of your Christmas tree

For two decades now, the iconic twin Voyager spacecraft have been quietly overturning everything we thought we knew about the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space

Mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey and New York State are underscoring the high number of these vehicles in the U.S.

It’s been a fascinating year in earth science—from mysterious “dark oxygen” to an “unidentified seismic object,” here are some incredible things we’ve learned about our planet in 2024

When Roe v. Wade fell, interest in long-acting and permanent birth control rose. Here’s what to know as Trump returns to office

Last year avian influenza brought death to the picturesque island of South Georgia off Antarctica. This season scientists hope things will be different

There are fewer than 500 Ethiopian wolves, and they may be the first large carnivore known to act as a pollinator

Milder cases of pneumonia, dubbed “walking pneumonia,” are on the rise in young children this year

When life feels difficult, humor can be a coping mechanism that relieves stress and offers the breathing room to keep going, scientists say

Understanding the psychology of ambiguous loss can help people struggling with grief and depression in the wake of the 2024 election results

The outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election could set the climate agenda, reshape public education and shift the dynamics of global science collaboration.

Pesky leaks on the International Space Station aren’t the most serious issue facing U.S. human spaceflight