My own field, the prevention of genetic disorders in babies, has been possible only because of humane work on animals.

I was born with my moustache and, no, I've never been tempted to shave it off. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about my face and, like Gilbert and Sullivan's Katisha, my best feature is my left shoulder-blade.

You can now modify the genes of large animals, and the largest animal we are concerned with is the human.

Parents should talk to their children, even when they are babies and can't talk back.

Women of child-bearing age steadily run out of eggs by the continuous process of cell death. While reading a copy of the Guardian carefully from cover to cover, a normal woman will have lost on average two eggs - while, typically, a normal man will have made 70,000 new sperm.

Whether you're religious or not, there is a real need for other people's religious positions to be treated with the upmost respect.

My first vote was for a communist in east London when I was a medical student. But I've voted Tory, Labour and Lib Dem in my time.