New Scientist Space - Space Headlines

Science fiction legend Ursula K. Le Guin is honoured with a new collection out this month, and sci-fi fans can also look forward to fiction from astronaut Chris Hadfield and award-winning authors Ken Liu and Mary Robinette Kowal

Scientists have discovered a new abdominal structure called the umbilical sheath, which anchors the remnant of the umbilical cord to deep abdominal tissues and helps determine the shape of your navel

An innovative use of skin cells could provide a route for same-sex couples or women with fertility problems to have children that both partners are genetically related to

Social media is awash with videos of cats and dogs getting startled or hurt for our entertainment. We should all be more alert to poor animal welfare, says Christa Lesté-Lasserre

Almost 200 engravings created around 12,000 years ago have been discovered in Saudi Arabia, including depictions of camels etched into cliff faces over 40 metres high

Fermented foods make up a third of what we eat and were mostly discovered by accident centuries ago. Now a fermentation revolution is promising extraordinary new flavours and novel ways to boost gut health

The black hole at the centre of a galaxy more than 50 million light years away is spewing out a jet of extremely hot plasma – though we have studied it for a century, we are only now seeing it in great detail

Mysterious flashes of light seen in swamps and bogs could be caused by burning methane or other gases, ignited by sparks that fly between bubbles in water

Many mammals physically pivot their ears to hone in on a particular sound, and now it seems that a similar action takes place in our brain

Black holes are so strange that physicists have long wondered if they are quite what they seem. Now we are set to find out if they are instead gravastars, fuzzballs or something else entirely

A clinical trial has found that VER-01, a drug derived from cannabis, eases chronic lower back pain without serious side effects or signs of addiction

Alexander Grothendieck was a titan in his field, making deep connections that fuelled a revolution in mathematics, before giving it all up and disappearing. Jacob Aron explores what his work meant

The world’s best clocks may be sensitive to an odd mix of quantum and relativistic effects that would stretch time and test the boundaries of physics

A commonly used class of antibiotics seems to kill bacteria like E. coli by breaking down their tough armour

Inhalers that combine relieving breathlessness with preventing it seem to be the most effective option for reducing asthma attacks in young children

Severe lung inflammation has been linked to symptoms resembling post-traumatic stress disorder in mice, which could help us better treat and prevent the mental health condition

Novels need a gripping story to stay popular as the decades pass, but it seems that other less-obvious factors may also contribute to their lasting success

There are signs deep beneath the Pacific Ocean that an exploding star once sent cosmic rays blasting out towards Earth, and now we have an idea of which stars may be to blame

The rhythm of an infant's brain activity seems to put them in constant learning mode, whereas that of an adult may allow them to retrieve conceptual knowledge

Stratospheric temperatures in Antarctica are spiking, which could see strange weather unfold across the southern hemisphere in the coming months