New Scientist Space - Cosmology
The essential guide to proving we’ve found alien life
From mudstones on Mars to strange gases in exoplanet atmospheres, tentative evidence for extraterrestrial life is starting to come thick and fast. But when we've found it, how will we know for sure?
Categories: Astronomy
You can upgrade your immune system, but not in the way you think
From vitamin C to your microbiome and mindset, the latest science of immunity is often counterintuitive. Here's how to give your system a fighting chance to overcome infection
Categories: Astronomy
Hopes of finding aliens were raised in 2025 – but quickly faded
Astronomers thought they had seen the "first hints of life on an alien world" this year, but they disappeared under closer scrutiny
Categories: Astronomy
Black hole stars really do exist in the early universe
Mysterious ‘little red dots’ seen by the James Webb Space Telescope can be explained by a new kind of black hole enshrouded in an enormous ball of glowing gas
Categories: Astronomy
What I’ll be doing to help detox my brain in the new year
We have only just started to understand how our brains clean themselves, but columnist Helen Thomson finds promising evidence for how to boost this process
Categories: Astronomy
Putting data centres in space isn't going to happen any time soon
From massive solar panels to the difficulty of staying cool - not to mention high-energy radiation - there are a lot of engineering problems that need to be solved before we can build data centres in space
Categories: Astronomy
The US beat back bird flu in 2025 – but the battle isn’t over
After starting the year with its first known bird flu death, the US expanded its efforts to contain the virus, which enabled it to end its public health emergency response months later
Categories: Astronomy
Quantum computers turned out to be more useful than expected in 2025
Rapid advances in the kind of problems that quantum computers can tackle suggest that they are closer than ever to becoming useful tools of scientific discovery
Categories: Astronomy

