There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

SCIENCE news this year has been dominated by Covid-19. Research has happened at an incredible speed, with scientists working around the clock to make rapid progress.
At the start of the year, we didn’t know that Sars-CoV-2 existed. Just nine months later, humanity has collectively sequenced and analysed its genome in detail, found evidence for a range of effective treatments and started the development of hundreds of candidate vaccines.
Other areas of science might seem sluggish by comparison. Indeed, science normally feels like it progresses at a snail’s pace. However, there is always more than meets the eye to nature. Snails are no exception.

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

Nature's self-reconstruction is both intriguing and beneficial and as such merits human protection, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT