Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

The lightning-fast development of vaccines against the coronavirus had a lot to do with piles of

earlier work using MRNA. Now there are hopes that same technology will do what's proved

elusive for four decades, provide protection against HIV. And paleontologists looking at scars

commonly found in the bones of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex have come up with a slightly titillating hypothesis.

It may be that as part of a mating ritual, these toothy giants gave one another love bites.

First up, though.

Election night at last arrived in Germany, and it was the nail-biter that was very much predicted.

The big questions had been around two parties, that of departing Chancellor Angela Merkel,

the center-right Christian Democrats, or CDU and its sister CSU, and the center-left Social

Democrats, or SPD, which had been enjoying a recent surge.

Chancellor candidates from both, Arman Lashett from the CDU and Olaf Schff Schultz from the SPD had the same thought.

It was going to be a long night.

Exit polls had the parties a hairs bred apart.

But the mood at the SPD headquarters was jubilant as Olaf Schultz took to the stage.

Mr. Schultz said citizens wanted a change in government,

and he spoke boldly of coalition building.

But so did the CDU's Armand Lashit.

promising a conservative-led government, a coalition to modernize the country.

That coalition building, a blur of more letters and party colors, is now where Germany's future

...