Meghan Rosen headhsot

Meghan Rosen

Staff Writer, Biological Sciences

Meghan Rosen is a staff writer who reports on the life sciences for Science News. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology with an emphasis in biotechnology from the University of California, Davis, and later graduated from the science communication program at UC Santa Cruz. Prior to joining Science News in 2022, she was a media relations manager at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her work has appeared in Wired, Science, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. Once for McSweeney’s, she wrote about her kids’ habit of handing her trash, a story that still makes her (and them) laugh.

All Stories by Meghan Rosen

  1. Plants

    Fossil fern showcases ancient chromosomes

    Fossil nuclei and chromosomes seen in a 180-million-year-old fern reveals that the plants have stayed mostly the same.

  2. Life

    Giant zombie virus pulled from permafrost

    After lying dormant in Siberian permafrost for 30,000 years, the largest virus ever discovered is just as deadly as it was when mammoths roamed the Earth.

  3. Neuroscience

    Me, Myself, and Why

    Me, Myself, and Why is an ambitious effort to dissect the hodgepodge of genetic and environmental factors that sculpt people’s identities.

  4. Psychology

    Suicide rates drop in big cities

    With more social connections, people may be less inclined to take their own lives.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Urine test detects not pregnancy but cancer

    A paper strip uses nanoparticles to pick up evidence of tumors or blood clots in mice.

  6. Animals

    A tiny ocean vortex, with pop art pizzazz

    Coral polyps kick up a whirling vortex of water by whipping their hairlike cilia back and forth in the photography winner of the 2013 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

  7. Materials Science

    Making artificial muscles with a spin

    Scientists have given ordinary fishing line and sewing thread a new twist. When coiled into tight corkscrews, the fibers can lift loads more than 100 times as heavy as those hefted by human muscles.

  8. Tech

    Termite-inspired robots build structures without central command

    Simple guidelines keep machines hauling and placing bricks.

  9. Ecosystems

    Amazon doesn’t actually go green in dry seasons

    An optical illusion in satellite data made forests appear to grow faster.

  10. Materials Science

    Etched glass stops cracks in their tracks

    Adding wavy lines to glass reduces the material’s notorious brittleness.

  11. Earth

    Life’s early traces

    Tiny tufts, rolls and crinkles in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that cellular life got a relatively quick start on Earth.

  12. Planetary Science

    Old rover finds new evidence of water on Mars

    Opportunity’s analysis of rocks at Endeavour crater reveals chemistry that could have supported life.