Okay, the big story for me today is yesterday’s vote in the UK Parliament to allow a new treatment for Mitochondrial Disease. Fans of Reasons to be Cheerful will know that I’m not a fan of sensationalist journalism or looking for controversy for controversy’s sake. The news is often, sorry, usually, nope that’s not right either, ALWAYS full of stories about how awful, corrupt, stupid etc. politicians are, so today I doff my cap to our elected leaders for having the courage to pass this new bill. If you don’t read past the headlines, the vote seems to sanction the sci-fi creation of chimeras from the DNA of 3 People. What the technique actually involves is the use of donor eggs to house the genetic material. In modern society we have no issues with adoption, sperm and egg donation, stem cells, organ donation, surrogacy and more. For me this technique is more like taking surrogacy to the next stage, as it’s not the mother’s womb that has issues but part of the mitochondria in the egg. New eggshell, same nucleus, 2 parents and the chance to start removing a genetic disorder that kills.

Apologies for the rant, but today is a day to celebrate sense over sensationalism.

• UK Votes to allow ground breaking cure for Mitochondrial Disease
• More plays staged in UK Theatres since 2009
• 3 People test Negative for Bird Flu
• Drug-Delivery Pioneer wins Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering
• US adds New Rules for Intelligence Data
• Carter’s Campaign to eliminate Guinea Worm
• Lost Chunk of Edsac Found
• England gets first Coast-to-Coast route for Canoes
• Bronze Age Bowman’s remains Found
• Fossilised Rhino Skull found on Norfolk Beach
• NI Coma Patient leaves Hospital in Australia
• Meadows wins 800m Gold at Copernicus Cup