New Scientist Space - Cosmology

It may sound strange, but mathematicians have created an entire ladder of infinities, each larger than the next. Now a new kind of infinity threatens to upset that order, and perhaps redefine the structure of the mathematical universe

Scuba divers will attempt to collect semen from at least nine wild male leopard sharks for the first time, for use in captive breeding programmes aiming to boost wild populations

A high-resolution view of hailstones the size of tennis balls can reveal how they form – and help researchers better forecast which storms will generate these destructive pieces of ice

The flu virus currently circulating in birds and dairy cows is already better at infecting people than earlier variants, and a single mutation would allow it to bind to key human receptors

A decline in low-lying cloud cover means Earth is absorbing more solar radiation, which could explain 0.2°C of missing heat scientists have been struggling to account for

Bees visited flowers on plants inoculated with diverse fungi more than plants without this treatment – but not every combination of fungus had the same effect

A US ban on exporting high-end chips used for AI development to China doesn't seem to have affected Tencent, as US researchers suggest they may have found signs of the tech giant still using the chips

A US ban on exporting high-end chips used for AI development to China doesn't seem to have affected Tencent, as researchers have found signs of the tech giant using the chips well after the ban was put in place

A robotic wheeled rat that was trained with AI learned how to play and fight with real rodents – and could one day offer companionship to lab rats

Women are more susceptible to autoimmune conditions than men, but also more protected against infections - and we are starting to understand why

In a unique demonstration of brain implants that incorporate living cells, the devices were able to connect with the brains of live mice

The bones of a child who died nearly 13,000 years ago suggest that the people who moved from Asia into North America at this time ate a lot of mammoth

Mark Catesby's work documents the plants and animals he saw while journeying in North America and the Caribbean

From an Earth that has become a nuclear wasteland to one threatened by extraterrestrials, there was some standout sci-fi TV in 2024. Our columnist Bethan Ackerley reveals her top five shows

Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. We journey to 2055, when a space elevator from the moon’s surface to near-Earth orbit was completed, opening space travel to all

Feedback takes one for the team and dips into the psychologist-turned-Youtuber's new tome, We Who Wrestle With God – only to quibble with the human biology it contains

Hindsight makes it clear that the fight against covid-19 was also a struggle against the quiet epidemic of suppressed science, says Dali L. Yang

Forget Megalopolis and Madame Web. The best science fiction films of the year were all horror-inflected, says our film columnist Simon Ings

Alternative thinking on the evolution of species is a welcome way to highlight some neglected aspects of life on Earth, but it doesn't mean Darwin was wrong

An analysis of ancient cuneiform texts suggests people thought of emotions in a different way almost 3000 years ago, showing how culture influences our most intimate experiences