On BBC2 tonight they showed this faux documentary/drama about a Doctor being taken to court for illegal research on embryonic stem cells. Following this there was a half hour debate, before the results of a viewer phone vote decided whether the jury would find the Dr guilty or innocent.

The cutoff period for study of embryonic stem cells is 14 days, because apparently after this the embryo starts to develop sentience. This cut off is extremely arbitrary, especially considering abortions are legal in this country up to 24 weeks after conception...

The main point of issue was the morality of using embryos for therapeutic stem cells - i.e. treating a patient. Reproductive stem cell research - cloning a whole human - is, in my opinion, something that should be completely outlawed.

I believe it is right for therapeutic stem cell research to take place, as the potential benefits are enormous. We have this developing technology, and we should fully explore the opportunities open to us.

The result of the viewer vote was 81% say Not Guilty. Strangely enough, the show ended with the Dr being completely acquitted by the court, and promptly arrested by and FBI agent and extrudited to the US. I'm not too sure what point the BBC were trying to make there.

For years now we've been told that global warming is occuring, mostly due to the greenhouse effect. A quick reminder for those of you that missed this in school - as carbon dioxide builds up, supposedly from the burning of fossil fuels etc, it creates a blanket around the Earth that allows the Sun's rays to enter, but not to leave, much in the same way as a greenhouse. It's been drummed into us that this is our fault! We caused this! We cut down the rainforests, the lungs of the Earth!

Well, it's not really as simple as that. For one, cutting down the rainforests certainly won't have contributed to global warming, though it is a terrible thing to do to such a lush environment and habitat. More importantly, global warming has nothing to do with humans.

I'm unsure of the exact figure, but didn't we come out of an ice age around 10,000 years ago? Did humans cause the warming then? How about previous ice ages? Are we responsible there too? Of course not. It's climate change; it happens.

The Kyoto treaty, I believe, is still worthwhile. Whether pollution damages the planet is irrelevant - it certainly damages us.