Senior lecturer in behavioural sciences Dr Andrew Hill warned on the front page of the Daily Telegraph that eight-year-olds may be too aware of the government’s anti-obesity campaigns.

“We’ve got the message through loud and clear to the general public,” Dr Hill said in the Guardian, “but it’s also filtered through to groups it was never intended to reach. No one wants six-year-olds taking matters into their own hands and reducing their calorific intake.”

The nature and impact of the Cambrian explosion 700m years ago was discussed by academics including professor of palaeoclimatology Jane Francis (pictured) on University Chancellor Lord Bragg’s BBC Radio 4 programme In our time.

Nearly every continent on the planet today where a core of Cambrian rocks are found has glacial tillites – rocks formed under the presence of glaciers. Finding these on a continent over the equator is very surprising. “It's a big problem for geologists – it's completely counter-intuitive,” said Professor Francis. On top of these rocks are limestone rock typically formed in warm water, indicating there must have been a rapid change in environment placing huge stress on our planet.

To hear the debate on how life evolved on Earth, visit www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/ inourtime_20050217.shtml

“What makes a really good leader – and could other animals teach our politicians how to do it?” asked BBC World Service Science in Action presenter Geoff Watts. “It’s true for birds, fish and pupils; some people are better at moving towards a target than others,” explained the programme which featured research by Professor Jens Krause (Reporter 505).

His team is now testing its model of how crowds move using Leeds students, showing that even without communication some individuals are better leaders than others. Professor Krause’s work was also covered by the Guardian and the Yorkshire Evening Post, among others.

Environmental toxicologist Professor Alastair Hay joined BBC Newsnight’s investigation into the poisoning of Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko. How the chemicals came to be administered is unclear but, as Professor Hay explained, Yushchenko’s symptoms can’t be blamed on dioxin alone: “This chemical is not noted to cause the severe gastro-intestinal damage he had. This is something you’d associate more with something very irritant, which dioxin isn’t.”

Asked about tracing the origin of the chemicals, Professor Hay said: “Even if you have a number of chemicals that are found in a blood sample it’s still going to be very difficult to pin it down to a particular laboratory.”

Professor Hay also appeared in the Times Higher Educational Supplement, drawing lessons from David Kelly's death amid the sexed-up Iraq dossier debacle. "The Government Inspector", a Channel 4 reconstruction about the events leading up to Dr Kelly's suicide, was broadcast on March 17. Professor Hay said of the programme: "This is a fine tribute to David, and achingly sad, as you understand how dreadful it must have been for him. The government fares badly and so it should. In the end it is a story about one man against impossible odds.”

Chewing gum is a multi-million pound problem for Britain’s councils, reported Business Week online. Physicist Dr Peter Olmsted outlined why concocting a non-stick or biodegradable gum isn’t easy: “All the properties that make it gum make it really difficult to remove. An easy path to a biodegradable gum would be to make one that dissolves in water. Trouble is, such a substance would not withstand chewing.”