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

SOLAR CELLS became a serious industry around 2000, when an exponential expansion in their installation began. Since then, they have gone on to make up a whopping — or rather, minuscule — 2 per cent of the global energy market.
They are, however, scheduled for continued extreme growth over the coming years, with the most dramatic predictions forecasting that their share of the energy market could increase to 50 per cent by 2050.
If it were possible to satisfy the entire world’s energy needs with solar power, (this is thought impossible because of the ways some energy must be used and stored) an area approximately the size of Spain would need to be totally covered in solar panels.

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