Ian Sample, The Guardian

The profound impact of LSD on the brain has been laid bare by the first modern scans of people high on the drug.

The human race faces one its most dangerous centuries yet as progress in science and technology becomes an ever greater threat to our existence, Stephen Hawking warns.

Cosmologist tweet appears to confirm rumors of possible discovery that could ‘open a new window on the universe’

When the Soyuz rocket carrying Britain’s Tim Peake blasted off from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this month, he took much of the nation with him . He is not the first British astronaut and not even the first from Sussex , but he is the only one ever admitted to the European astronaut corps . That makes a difference. As a career astronaut for the European Space Agency, Peake is uniquely placed to inspire British children for many years to come. The launch was a historic moment, but far from the only highlight of 2015.

High-strength cannabis may damage nerve fibres that handle the flow of messages across the two halves of the brain, scientists claim. Brain scans of people who regularly smoked strong skunk-like cannabis revealed subtle differences in the white matter that connects the left and right hemispheres and carries signals from one side of the brain to the other.