Experts calculate the total number of the dinosaurs that lived over 127,000 generationsOne Tyrannosaurus rex seems scary enough. Now picture 2.5 billion of them. That’s how many of the fierce dinosaur king probably roamed Earth over the course of a couple of million years, a new study finds.Using calculations based on body size, sexual maturity and the creatures’ energy needs, a team at the...

New paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat into space, reducing need for air conditioningThe whitest-ever paint has been produced by academic researchers, with the aim of boosting the cooling of buildings and tackling the climate crisis.The new paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat through the atmosphere into space. In tests, it cooled...

Exclusive: leaked emails seen by the Guardian show ‘urgent need for decisions’ on asymptomatic testingSenior government officials have raised “urgent” concerns about the mass expansion of rapid coronavirus testing, estimating that as few as 2% to 10% of positive results may be accurate in places with low Covid rates, such as London.Boris Johnson last week urged everyone in England to take...

Scientists confirm they have produced ‘chimera’ embryos from long-tailed macaques and humansMonkey embryos containing human cells have been produced in a laboratory, a study has confirmed, spurring fresh debate into the ethics of such experiments.The embryos are known as chimeras, organisms whose cells come from two or more “individuals”, and in this case, different species: a long-tailed...

The wealth of research going on around Covid and inequality could be used to help everyone lead healthier livesWill Hutton is the incoming president of the Academy of Social SciencesFor the past year the repeated government invocation has been that it will “follow the science”. As the world knows, the general direction of scientific advice, although there have been occasional dissenters and...

Palaeontologist who studied the bony ancestors of salmon and cod, and what lungfish had in common with four-limbed animalsEarly in his scientific career, Brian Gardiner, who has died aged 88, was seduced by fossils – the remains, shapes or traces of ancient organisms preserved in rock. Brian wanted to learn how these should be interpreted and classified and what they reveal about evolution. In...

Why do we scream? Whilst past research has largely focused on using screams to signal danger and scare predators, humans scream in a much wider range of contexts – from crying out in pleasure to shrieking with grief. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Sascha Frühholz about his new study identifying what emotions humans communicate through screams, and how our brains react differently to distinct...