But science has told us, tentatively, what "meaning" is (in the sense meant by the question), what "life" is, and what the closest answer to the "meaning of life" is.

We don't really like hearing the answer; individualism is popular and facing one's own mortality is unpopular and so on.

But it's not a mystery any longer. You simply have to stare directly at the problem, and recognize that firstly it's largely an ill-formed question, and to the extent that it's not, the answer feels too much like "eat your vegetables".