The media feeding frenzy that is the British Association Festival of Science has kicked off. Katrina Charles is there for Nature and has thus far enlightened us about fossilised forests in Illinois coal mines and why science in science fiction films is a bit silly.

There’s far more to cover than one person alone can manage. Here’s a round up of the rest…

A drug that mimics the effects of stomach surgery could be available in five years, says the Daily Telegraph. I’m going to bet it’s more than five years off as the person researching the topic – Carol Le Roux – says we don’t actually understand the mechanisms behind the surgery yet (PA).

Tim Lang, of City University in London, wants packing to display how eco-friendly its contents are. Pushing the sci-fi boat right out, the BBC reports that one day “Food packaging could be embedded with computer chips that instantly link your phone to an on-line sustainable food guide, a UK conference has heard.” Leo Kärkkäinen, Nokia’s ‘chief visionary’ said much the same thing in Nature last week.

Maybe they could go the whole hog and programme food to send us text messages like “UR BMI 2 HI FOR THIS CHOCL8. TRY CLRY”.

Orlaith Fraser, of Liverpool John Moores University, has a story that ticks all the media boxes: chimps like to hug and kiss after they’ve had a tiff with other chimps. Ahhh.

“Usually within the first minute of the end of conflict, the consolation occurs,” she says (Daily Mail).

Fraser thinks this could show chimps can empathise (BBC).

Finally, the Guardian says that archaeologists are creating 3D records of shipwrecks that will “preserve the information they contain about past civilisations even if the wrecks are damaged or destroyed”. It might even allow you to experience the wrecks without going scuba diving, although why you would want to forgo the freezing waters of the English Channel and the silt that means you can’t see your hand in front of your face is beyond me…