Independent: Sir David King stepped down yesterday as the Government’s chief scientific adviser after seven years at the centre of the Whitehall machinery governing science-related topics as diverse as flooding, badger-culling, nuclear power and climate change. As the top science adviser to the Prime Minister, Sir David gave Tony Blair the scientific ammunition to conduct a ruthless campaign of "contiguous culling" during the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2000-2001, when the Government took the deeply …