Goodbye Mr Chips. And Mr Jones. And Mr Smith, Mr Chan, Mr... well, every one really

Men are on their way out. Genetically speaking. The Y chromosome is somewhat diminutive, to say the least, and it has been getting shorter for the last few hundred thousands years. One day, evolutionary geneticists speculate, it will eventually disappear, leaving an entirely emasculated population, free from the testosterone fuelled pursuits of men. Nation will no longer take up sword against nation. Instead, they will invite each other round to talk about their problems and perhaps paint each other's nails and eat fondue.

It sounds ridiculous but it's already happened in some kind of hamster-like species in Africa. Don't ask me how they reproduce, but they do. Nature, as the man once said, will find a way.

My picture of the week. This is what scientists thought a sperm must look like around the time Oliver Cromwell was upgrading plum duff to a Class A substance.





Either that or someone's leaked the technical diagrams for the Welsh Assembly's forthcoming space program.

Please don't flag my blog.