New Scientist Space - Cosmology
A huge cloud of dark matter may be lurking near our solar system
For the first time, researchers have found what seems to be a cloud of dark matter about 60 million times the mass of the sun in our galactic neighbourhood
Categories: Astronomy
Treating cancer before 3pm could help patients live longer
The most robust evidence to date shows that people with a type of lung cancer lived longer if they received immunotherapy before 3pm
Categories: Astronomy
The secret signals our organs send to repair tissues and slow ageing
Your organs are constantly talking to each other in ways we’re only beginning to understand. Tapping into these communication networks is opening up radical new ways to boost health
Categories: Astronomy
Neanderthals and early humans may have interbred over a vast area
We are getting a clearer sense of where and how often Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbred, and it turns out the behaviour was much more common than we first thought
Categories: Astronomy
Melatonin gummies as sleep aids for children: What are the risks?
To eliminate bedtime struggles, a growing number of parents have turned to melatonin gummies, but these hormone supplements are largely unregulated. Columnist Alice Klein digs into the evidence on the risks of regularly using melatonin as a sleep aid for children
Categories: Astronomy
CRISPR grapefruit without the bitterness are now in development
Gene-editing citrus fruits to make them less bitter could not only encourage more people to eat them, it might also help save the industry from a devastating plague
Categories: Astronomy
The best new popular science books of February 2026
Readers are spoiled for choice when it comes to popular science reading this month, with new titles by major names including Maggie Aderin and Michael Pollan
Categories: Astronomy
Can we genetically improve humans using George Church’s famous list?
Columnist Michael Le Page delves into a catalogue of hundreds of potentially beneficial gene mutations and variants that is popular with transhumanists
Categories: Astronomy
Why people can have Alzheimer's-related brain damage but no symptoms
Some people don’t develop dementia despite showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brain, and we're starting to understand why
Categories: Astronomy
Elon Musk is making a big bet on his future vision – will it work?
Reports suggest that Elon Musk is eyeing up a merger involving SpaceX, Tesla and xAI, but what does he hope to achieve by consolidating his business empire?
Categories: Astronomy
Yawning has an unexpected influence on the fluid inside your brain
Yawning and deep breathing each have different effects on the movement of fluids in the brain, and each of us may have a distinct yawning "signature"
Categories: Astronomy
The best new science fiction books of February 2026
We pick the sci-fi novels we’re most looking forward to reading this month, from a new Brandon Sanderson to the latest from Makana Yamamoto
Categories: Astronomy
How an 1800s vaccine drive beat smallpox in Denmark in just 7 years
In the early 1800s, Denmark’s government, medical community, church leaders and school teachers all united to promote the new smallpox vaccine, which led to a remarkably quick elimination of the disease in the capital
Categories: Astronomy
Our verdict on Annie Bot: This novel about a sex robot split opinions
Members of the New Scientist Book Club give their take on Sierra Greer's award-winning science-fiction novel Annie Bot, our read for February – and the needle swings wildly from positive to negative
Categories: Astronomy
Read an extract from Juice by Tim Winton
In this extract from the February read for the New Scientist Book Club, we meet the protagonist of Tim Winton’s Juice, driving across a scorched landscape in a future version of Australia
Categories: Astronomy
Tim Winton: 'Sometimes I think we use the word dystopia as an opiate'
The New Scientist Book Club's February read is Tim Winton's novel Juice, set in a future Australia that is so hot it is almost unliveable. Here, the author lays out his reasons for writing it – and why he doesn't see it as dystopian
Categories: Astronomy
This doctor is on the hunt for people with first-rate faeces
Elizabeth Hohmann is very interested in faeces, and spends her days sifting through stools to find those that could make the biggest difference to other people's health
Categories: Astronomy
AI-assisted mammograms cut risk of developing aggressive breast cancer
Interval cancers are aggressive tumours that grow during the interval after someone has been screened for cancer and before they are screened again, and AI seems to be able to identify them at an early stage
Categories: Astronomy
Our lifespans may be half down to genes and half to the environment
A reanalysis of twin data from Denmark and Sweden suggests that how long we live now depends roughly equally on the genes we inherit, and on where we live and what we do
Categories: Astronomy
Polar bears are getting fatter in the fastest-warming place on Earth
Shrinking sea ice has made life harder for polar bears in many parts of the Arctic, but the population in Svalbard seems to be thriving
Categories: Astronomy

