I hold no truck with Mr Science Notebook’s rebranding of Radio 4 as Radio Bore. Had I not been listening to Beyond Belief one afternoon last week – supposedly in the company of distracted mothers and dozing pensioners – I would never have known that some Islamic scholars believe an embryo to be a human being only after the 40th day. I almost dropped my Scotch pancake when a guest pronounced that it would be permissible, under Islam, to let a pregnancy progress to 40 days, then abort the foetus and harvest its tissue to treat a sick sibling. Neither was it dull to hear the same speaker suggest that embryologists should regard Muslim countries as liberal havens for research on the unborn.

Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, from the Muslim Council of Britain, provides clarification: “We believe that on the 40th day the soul is placed in the embryo, and then it develops in its own right. But the idea that you can abort a foetus for its tissue would be controversial. Some scholars might permit it but that would be the exception rather than the rule.”

How reassuring to see the Soil Association tread the same, barren patch of ideology. It said last week, in response to the news that food additives are bad for children, that “this dramatic new evidence highlighting the link between hyperactive behaviour and the ‘cocktail’ effect of certain additives is a blow to the nonorganic, processed, food industry. . .”

But it is deceptive to argue that organic food is the only alternative. You don’t have to eat organic to avoid additives. You don’t have to eat organic to be healthy. Note the Food Standards Agency’s conclusion: “Consumers may also choose to buy organic food because they believe that it is safer and more nutritious . . . the balance of current scientific evidence does not support this view.”

Buy organic because you care for the environment and animal welfare. Don’t buy organic because you think it’s the only safe way to feed your child.

For 30 years the Voyager spacecraft have glided through space like armour-plated ballerinas, visiting previously unexplored worlds such as Neptune and Uranus. Voyager 1 now lies 10 billion miles away (the most distant man-made object from the Sun) and Voyager 2 lies eight billion miles away. It is thrilling that both are still beaming back signals charting the frontier between our Solar System and the cosmos beyond.

Will there ever be a comparable manned voyage? Only a lunatic, surely, would wish to spend three decades being hurtled to the edge of our Solar System, with no chance of return. Mars – or another planet – is a more feasible destination, but the UK has yet to sign up for manned space flight. This Wednesday at the BA Festival of Science in York, I’ll be chairing a debate on whether we benefit from space research. All – even the lunatics – are welcome.

Times Recommends

• It’s the beginning of the affair
• Afghanistan: still a price worth paying
• Heroes of the downtrodden