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The climate moment • This is a historic opportunity to secure humanity’s future. We must seize it
Three million deaths • As the world passes a grim milestone, Michael Le Page explores the pandemic’s trajectory and the reasons to hope the worst will soon be over
What is the true death toll?
Sputnik V vaccine goes global • Non-Western vaccines are serious players in the global effort against covid-19, but we need more transparent data, reports Graham Lawton
Mix-and-match vaccines for a boost?
Distress after killings • Reports of US police killings harm Black people’s mental health
Electric bicycle balances itself even when turning
First helicopter flight on another planet takes off
Elephant trunk robot has a mind of its own
‘Lost’ coffee plant can resist climate change
Facebook wants to use AI to find drug combos
Is this the earliest alphabet? • Carvings found in clay suggest the alphabet may be 500 years older than we thought
Colour-changing beetle inspires efficient algorithm
Untouched nature was almost as rare 12,000 years ago as it is now
Microwave weapon makes short work of drone swarms
A way to predict the strength of the next Asian monsoon
Will the EU save us from AI dystopia? • The increased use of artificial intelligence risks the rise of algorithmic discrimination, but proposed EU laws aim to help, says Matthew Sparkes
Choosing what we eat can help avert water scarcity
Lonesome life takes toll on wasp’s brain
Billions of T. rex lived and died in dino era
Really brief
New, lighter form of uranium made in lab
Less than 3 per cent of land habitats still in pristine state
Secrets of the sex change dragons
The science of grief • Lockdown is affecting how millions of people grieve. We should be mindful of that when restrictions ease, says Dean Burnett
The curious case of the Renaissance watermelon • Many crops have changed over the years through cultivation, but that doesn’t mean they have become less nutritious, writes James Wong
Your letters
How has covid-19 impacted STEM? • The 2021 New Scientist Jobs/SRG industry survey finds that the STEM sector seems to have weathered the coronavirus pandemic relatively well, says Gege Li
Fire and ice
The great succulent sting • Plant poaching to feed a mysterious black market makes a fascinating documentary, finds Katie Smith-Wong
Building a robofuture • As social robots edge closer, a thoughtful book suggests we would do well to see them as animals, says Vijaysree Venkatraman
Don’t miss
Total exposure • Chaos Walking is set on a planet that human settlers have called New World. But it is an off-kilter place: women have been wiped out and men have been altered so that their thoughts are audible and visible, says Simon Ings
Climate change: NOW or never • “Make or break” is hardly hyperbole for the climate negotiations due to reach their climax in November in Glasgow, UK. At the COP26 meeting, nations will have a last chance to really rev up the stuttering motor of climate action and come good on commitments made in Paris in 2015 to limit global warming to a “safe” level of 1.5°C. The facts aren’t waiting. Global temperature has already risen by...