The series unveils uncomfortable truths about youth alienation and online radicalisation — but the real crisis lies in austerity and the absence of class consciousness in addressing young people’s disillusionment, says teacher ROBERT POOLE
Patents: how the profit machine costs lives
Despite miraculous trial results showing new treatment could halt transmission, corporate greed and patent laws condemn millions to preventable infection and death, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

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.
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A small Japanese trial has reported some positive results for stem cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries

Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

It’s sunny times for the solar industry which is expected to continue to grow rapidly — but there are still major environmental issues with how solar cells are made, explain ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

Fraud in Alzheimer’s research raises difficult questions about the current state of science, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT