New Scientist Space - Cosmology

Felt time can speed up and slow down, depending on circumstances, because our perception of duration is intrinsically linked to the mental states induced by our physiological responses to the world

Our species' unique awareness of our own mortality can create a nagging sense that we are wasting our time – but leaning into the fact that our time is finite can transform the way we approach life

To make sense of the fact that adaptation can happen quickly and yet true evolutionary change seems to take forever, biologists suggest that evolution runs on two very different clocks

Ditching artificial light and living by the natural cycle of the sun can offer plenty of benefits for your health. But when you lose any sense of time whatsoever, you risk losing yourself too

The most advanced atomic clocks don’t just tell time – they could soon get so ludicrously accurate that they could be used for detecting gravitational waves and testing the limits of relativity

Physicists have long sought to marry general relativity and quantum mechanics – now some reckon experiments that probe the way each theory treats time could finally make it happen

The universe might meet its end in a big freeze, a big crunch, or a big rip. But whether time ends with the demise of the cosmos depends on whether it is even real after all

The true nature of time continues to elude us. But whether it is a fundamental part of the cosmos or an illusion made in our minds has profound implications for our understanding of the universe

The physics thought to explain the arrow of time is not as simple as you might think – and in traversable wormholes, Einstein’s theory of general relativity does in principle offer routes to the past

Recent studies suggest there is not one part of the brain dedicated to measuring duration, as there is for senses like taste and smell. Instead, the passage of time is tracked by a network of “time cells”

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is sending back stunning images as it explores an ancient river delta in Jezero crater for signs of life

Increasing numbers of space launches will put more black carbon high in the atmosphere, where it can trap heat from the sun

An animal rights group says that an elephant in the Bronx Zoo in New York is so intelligent she should be granted legal personhood, but a court has now issued a ruling saying otherwise

Alan Turing first proposed a test for machine intelligence in 1950, but now researchers at Google and their partners have created a suite of 204 tests to replace it, covering subjects such as mathematics, linguistics and chess

When cats lick and chew catnip or silver vine plants, higher levels of insect-repelling iridoid chemicals are released

Hundreds of genetic variants may influence your risk of becoming severely ill with covid-19, a discovery that could lead to more targeted treatments or even tests that assess a person's likelihood of complications

China’s Chang’e 5 mission landed on the moon in 2020 and sent back samples of dust and rocks, which have been found to contain water – but not very much of it

The toad-headed agama can unfold colourful skin flaps at the corners of its mouth to produce a vibrant display, but a study suggests this behaviour hasn’t evolved to impress mates – it may actually help to startle predators

The UK may invest in its own space plans if Brexit-related issues continue to prevent full involvement in the European Union’s programmes

A 2000-generation experiment with bacteria suggests existing variation makes a smaller contribution to evolution than we had thought