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New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Lost in Space-Time

Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or mathematician to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. You can sign up to the Lost in Space-Time newsletter here.
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Is our cosmos just a membrane on the edge of a far stranger reality?

Space

Is our cosmos just a membrane on the edge of a far stranger reality?

String theory may be our best attempt at a theory of everything, except that it can't describe an expanding universe like ours. Now a radical new twist on the idea could finally fix that – but it requires us to completely reimagine reality

Features

Space

Giant Milky Way-like galaxy formed unusually soon after the big bang

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Mind

Memory illusion makes you think events occurred earlier than they did

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NASA Webb Wows With Incredible Detail in Actively Forming Star System At the center is a thin vertical cloud known as Lynds 483 that is shaped like an hourglass with irregular edges. At lower center are two discrete bright white, tiny blobs of light that have raced away from the hidden central stars. The top lobe shows a more prominent orange U-shape. Orange bleeds into light purple, and brighter pink at its edges. Some background stars are visible through sections of this lobe. Higher up, there is an orange arc. Some brighter pink material extends to the top edges near the center. In the lower lobe, less orange is visible. More opaque light purple is in its top third, rippling out into semi-transparent blues and pinks. The lower lobe has more texture. V-shapes left and right of the lobes are darkest, and the background stars in these areas appear orange. Elsewhere, the black background of space is clearer, speckled with tiny white stars and faint orange galaxies. Shimmering ejections emitted by two actively forming stars make up Lynds 483 (L483). High-resolution near-infrared light captured by NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope shows incredible new detail and structure within these lobes. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Space

See a shimmering hourglass-shaped star system in exquisite detail

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Helios at the Bath Assembly Rooms, Jan 2025

Space

51¶¯Âþ recommends Helios, Luke Jerram's giant sun sculpture

Culture

Rhiannon Adam, United Kingdom, Finalist, Professional competition, Creative, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Space

Eerie image of a space-bound rocket among photo contest finalists

Regulars

The cosmic landscape of time that explains our universe's expansion

Space

The cosmic landscape of time that explains our universe's expansion

Features

Physics

Why exactly is the quantum world so weird?

Comment

US military wants to grow giant biological structures in space

Technology

US military wants to grow giant biological structures in space

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The best new science fiction books of March 2025

Comment

The best new science fiction books of March 2025

John Scalzi, Silvia Park and Ai Jang all have new books out this month. Whether it’s time travel or a moon made of cheese that takes your fancy, there’s some sci-fi here for you

Culture

Space

Spacecraft may need to be dirtier to keep astronauts healthy

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Mind

Sci-fi thriller Dissolution smartly interweaves time travel and memory

Culture

Space

51¶¯Âþ recommends Jennifer Walshe: Zero-gravity opera

Culture

Physics

Time can move both forwards and backwards at the quantum scale

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