Material World - 21/05/2009

Quentin Cooper looks at the maths of scrappage, the government's 300 million-pound scheme for paying you 2,000 pounds to scrap your 10-year-old car. Is it actually any good for the environment? As flowers bloom at Chelsea, we look at the evolutionary history of flowering plants and their social insect partners - the bees. And as the news agenda was briefly dominated by the announcement of the spectacular fossilised remains of a small eocene mammal - named Ida by her discovers - Quentin looks at the scientific credentials of some of the grander claims being made, and at the high-profile manner in which the announcement was made. Can she really be the supposed 'missing link' between the primates and other mammals? Or is it more of a case of a missing link between the media and science?