Tennesine - Periodic science news

SpaceX has been awarded a $2.9 billion contract to build the lunar lander that will take astronauts to the surface of the moon as part of NASA's Artemis programme

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

A team of physicists in China has produced the lightest uranium atom ever, which is more than 10 per cent smaller than the most common type of uranium

Facebook claims that its new artificial intelligence can predict the way drugs interact with each other inside cells, but other researchers say it may not translate into results that will be useful in humans

Many researchers think the alphabet emerged in Egypt about 3800 years ago – but possible examples of alphabetic writing from a 4300-year-old site in Syria challenge that idea

A robotic elephant trunk made of a chain of motorised segments is operated by an artificial intelligence that can allow on-the-job training

A climate model can reliably predict the strength of the Asian summer monsoon – and the tropical cyclone activity associated with it – more than one year ahead of time, which could help governments better prepare for damaging weather events

The 14 April launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket may have been the spacecraft’s last test flight before it begins taking passengers to the edge of space

An ultra-reflective white paint absorbs so little sunlight that it becomes cooler than its surroundings, so it could replace energy-intensive air conditioners to cool buildings

Some Australian lizards that begin developing as males will hatch as females if the egg is particularly warm, because the heat triggers genes that override their sex chromosomes

An estimate for the number of Tyrannosaurus rex that ever existed suggests that around 20,000 adults lived at any one time, meaning there were a total of 2.5 billion of them during the lifespan of the species

Alaskan forests generally contain coniferous trees – but after wildfires sweep through, deciduous trees that store more carbon can become dominant

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

Simple dietary changes – like switching beef for chicken and peas for asparagus – may help people in the US reduce the amount of water required to put their meals on the table

Human-monkey chimeras produced by implanting human stem cells in macaque embryos could be used to study how cells develop, but some ethicists have raised concerns

Leaked draft legislation suggests the European Union is attempting to find a “third way” on artificial intelligence regulation, between the free market US and authoritarian China

Despite being commonly known as killer whales, Orcas are actually members of the dolphin family

Most of Earth’s terrestrial habitats have lost their ecological integrity – even areas previously categorised as being intact

Our Future Planet at the Science Museum in London is an intelligent and timely show, highlighting carbon capture technology

Seismic activity in Taiwan happens more often during the dry season when the groundwater built up during monsoon season is depleted, leaving Earth’s crust more likely to rebound under stress