The Tory conference was a pseudo-sacred affair, with devotees paying homage in front of Thatcher’s old shrouds — and your reporter, initially barred, only need mention he’d once met her to gain access. But would she consider what was on offer a worthy legacy, asks ANDREW MURRAY

DECIDING a particular year when a scientific discovery or advance took place is often an arbitrary decision. Archimedes is said to have leapt from his bathtub and shouted “Eureka!” when he realised that the volume of any object, no matter how complicated, could be found by placing the object in water and measuring the volume of water it displaces.
But even that eureka moment is of dubious authenticity. It is rare for scientific research to advance in a glorious instant of revelation.
So when the journal Science named the HIV/AIDS drug lenacapavir as its “breakthrough of the year,” it shouldn’t be surprising that its story began far earlier.

High pressures squeeze and crush, but low pressures damage too. Losing the atom-level buzz that keeps us held safe in the balance of internal and external pressure releases dangerous storms, disorientation and pain, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

What’s behind the stubborn gender gap in Stem disciplines ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT in their column Science and Society

While politicians condemned fascist bombing of Spanish civilians in 1937, they ignored identical RAF tactics across the colonies. Today’s aerial warfare continues this pattern of applying different moral standards based on geography and race, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

The distinction between domestic and military drones is more theoretical than practical, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT