A copy of The House, Parliament's weekly magazine dropped through my letterbox yesterday.

And there, on page 47, is a glowing review of The New Optimists by no less than Baroness Perry of Southwark who, among other prestigious positions, is a member of the Lords Science and Technology select committee.

Entitled "Reasons to be cheerful", she is "inspired" by the over 80 scientists [our guys!] who have made their "positive predictions about the potential of science to transform human health and wellbeing in the 21st century".

She mentions Professor Jon Frampton by name (although, alas, misspells it!). He runs the University of Birmingham Stem Cell Centre -- and is far from the only person who thinks stem cells have the potential to revolutionalise medicine. Mentioned by name, too, is Dr Kathleen Maitland, a computer scientist from BCU who in "her clear and jargon-free essay . . . predicts that the way young people of today interact with technology wil lead to 'scientific breakthroughs which we could never dram of'."