NASA’s Webb telescope takes flight—a Christmas gift to astronomers everywhere | Science

NASA’s most expensive telescope ever is in space at last. The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, an instrument expected to revolutionize astronomy by gathering light from the atmospheres of alien worlds and the universe’s first galaxies, launched at 7:20 a.m. Eastern Time on a sultry Christmas morning from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana. Some … Read more

The best books of 2021 – New Scientist’s Christmas gift guide

By Simon Ings Getty Images/iStockphoto The first rule of popular science is to reveal the wonder and mystery of the world. For that reason, Sentient (Picador), written by photographer and wildlife film-maker Jackie Higgins, is my personal pick of the year. It reveals how the 86 billion nerve cells in the human nervous system afford … Read more