· Brain development may suffer as early as 17 weeks
· Charity urges supportive environment in pregnancy

· Analysis of genome to identify those at risk
· Heart disease and diabetes among conditions studied.

Forensic scientists have developed ways of linking DNA on the fragments of an exploded bomb to the person who made it.

Obituary: Renowned physicist and pioneer at the new Sussex university.

· Treatment mimics body's signals for feeling full
· Volunteers' appetites reduced by a fifth in trials

Research published today suggests women should be better informed of the harms of breast cancer screening, including the increased likelihood of having a mastectomy and receiving radiotherapy.

Vitamin D - manufactured by the skin in response to sunlight - may have a role to play in fighting breast cancer, scientists say today.

An experimental psychologist is using a cardigan purported to have been worn by murderer Fred West to argue that scientists' efforts to combat 'irrational' beliefs are ultimately futile.

Chemicals in mothballs and air fresheners may increase the risk of cancer, scientists have discovered.

This week a European spacecraft will arrive for a date with Venus, our closest planetary neighbour. Scientists hope the mission, made on a shoestring budget, will reveal vital lessons on how unchecked greenhouse gases can turn a world into a blistering Hades. Robin McKie reports on a journey to the Forgotten Planet.

They drive motorists mad and wreak havoc by unleashing accidental floods, gas leaks and power outrages. But finally, something is to be done about the 4m holes dug in British roads every year. A team of scientists is to create the first 3D map of the pipes and cables beneath the nation's streets.

In theory yes, although you would not be able to do much useful with them. The news this week that US researchers have produced a radio-controlled dogfish and plan to extend the technology to sharks raises the question of what the military, which funded the research, want to do it for.