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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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Across the universe. Traveling in space. Time travel. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.; Shutterstock ID 200832383; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Physics

Read an extract from time-travel novel The Ministry of Time

In this short extract from Kaliane Bradley's sci-fi novel, her protagonist makes a startling discovery about the nature of time

Culture

Time glitch concept. Hypnotising watch on a chain swinging above clouds.; Shutterstock ID 1121133503; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Comment

'Time travel was just a metaphor for controlling a narrative'

Culture

Technology

Trump's Golden Dome defence project could spur a space arms race

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Caption The ICEPIC sampling tool drilling into the ice at sampling site A of the Matanuska Glacier, AK, field trial. Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

Technology

See the robot that may one day search for life on Jupiter's icy moon

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EWXH9C THE MARTIAN (2015) MATT DAMON RIDLEY SCOTT (DIR)

Space

A doe-eyed look at space exploration is inadequate for the zeitgeist

Culture

2T1GT7B Artwork of Accelerating Universe

Physics

How dark energy findings may inspire a new generation of physics nerds

Comment

Space

One half of the moon is hotter than the other

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This new Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features an astounding number of galaxies. The objects in this frame span an incredible range of distances, from stars within our own Milky Way, marked by diffraction spikes, to galaxies billions of light-years away.?? The star of this image is a group of galaxies, the largest concentration of which can be found just below the centre of this image. These galaxies glow with white-gold light. We see this galaxy group as it appeared when the Universe was 6.5 billion years old, a little less than half the Universe???s current age. More than half of the galaxies in our Universe belong to galaxy groups like the one pictured here. Studying galaxy groups is critical for understanding how individual galaxies link up to form galaxy clusters, the largest gravitationally bound structures in the Universe. Belonging to a galaxy group can also alter the course of a galaxy???s evolution through mergers and gravitational interactions. The galaxy group pictured here is the most massive group in what???s called the COSMOS-Web field. COSMOS stands for Cosmic Evolution Survey. This survey has enlisted several telescopes, including Webb, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and ESA???s XMM-Newton space observatory to gaze deeply at a single patch of sky.?? COSMOS-Web aims to understand how massive structures like galaxy clusters came to be. Webb???s infrared capabilities and sensitive instruments have pushed the search for galaxy groups farther back into cosmic history, revealing galaxy groups as far back as when the Universe was only 1.9 billion years old ??? just 14% of its current age. This image combines infrared data from Webb???s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) instrument with further infrared observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. The X-ray data, shown in purple, highlights the presence of hot gas concentrated within the X-ray galaxy group. These X-ray data come from ESA???s XMM-Newton space observ

Space

Colourful group of galaxies offers peek into history of the universe

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Physics

Why physicists keep trying to get rid of space-time entirely

Comment

John Harrison marine timekeeper at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Video

The clocks that helped define time from London's Royal Observatory

From sundials to atomic clocks, London's Royal Observatory explores the timepieces that helped shape the world

Video

Life

Let's remember that extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence

Leader

Space

Claims of alien life are overhyped – and miss the real accomplishment

Comment

Space

Most accurate space clock to launch – and count down to destruction

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Technology

Inside the outlandish, futuristic dreams of the tech bros

Culture

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