It will examine neutrons (the electrically neutral components of atomic nuclei) that are ejected from the lunar surface after being bombarded by cosmic rays (energetic particles that constantly streak through space).

ECONOMIST: Divining water

But chip makers are having trouble making more precise beams, and the Global Positioning System, which allows people to locate themselves to within a few metres on the surface of the earth, is limited by the performance of its atomic clocks.

ECONOMIST: A new way has been devised to make a peculiar form of matter

To remedy this problem, Kylie Catchpole of the Australian National University in Canberra and Albert Polman of the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam have been trying to redirect the light that falls onto the surface of a cell in such a way that all colours are efficiently absorbed.

ECONOMIST: Solar energy