Mitochondrial transfer has been licensed in Britain and the first such operation could take place from next April. It ought to be to the media’s shame but they have none:  the result of this process is commonly called a Three-Parent Baby.

This is misleading and totally exasperating to anyone who knows a little of the science. The mitchochondrion is a vital part of our cellular metabolism and it has its own genes, albeit very few of them. It is friendly little parasite. The mitochondrion is the cell’s powerhouse and it derives from an ancient piece of cellular fusion 1.5 billion years ago when life consisted only of single-celled organisms. One cell swallowed another and put its machinery to work. The mitochondrion was once a bacteria-like entity but in higher animals it has lost almost all its genes except those that carry out its vital energetic functions. It does not have “people” genes, only a few relics of its ancient bacterial genes. It is a kind of battery, if you like. The biochemical functions of the mitochondrion are common to every form of multi-cellular life – it is low-level chemical plumbing.

We accept heart and other transplants as routine these days. If you‘re happy to take a dynamo from another person, why not start a baby with a battery that works? A baby resulting from mitochondrial transfer is A Man a Woman and Battery Pack or, if you prefer A Man a Woman and a 1.5 Billion Year Old Piece of Cellular Metabolism. Not a Three-Parent Baby.

Simon Jenkins’ most insistent message in his recent Guardian columns has been that governments are terrifying their citizens with needless panics: pandemics, terrorism, and antibiotic-resistant bugs. For Jenkins these have all been proved to be hysterical over-reactions. His analysis, that governments play on these fears to cow the populace  and that big money is often made out of such scare-mongering  is undoubtedly true. But that doesn’t make him right every time. The point about the story of the boy who cried world is that eventually there was a wolf.

The most likely wolf amongst the current terror stories is the antibiotic crisis. Trying to resolve this is now the aim of the new £10 million Longitude Prize.  It is on the Prime Minister’s radar, which is one reason Simon Jenkins dismisses it.

But the science is inexorable. Current antibiotics only have a time-limited  window against the evolutionary  potential of bacteria. Without new therapies – and there have been no new antibiotics since the ’ 80s – the bugs will win. It is still possible that Simon Jenkins will go to the grave saying I told you so: “the antibiotics are still working”. But we’re not good at understanding time scales beyond our own lifetime. The bugs have got time on their side.

I thought the news that Astra Zeneca was closing the legendary ex-ICI research facility at Alderley Park was bad enough but now they announce 2,300 more job cuts, UK portion unspecified. And it is refocusing: “It will cut spending on neuroscience and antibiotics”. Antibiotics? Those are the drugs the UK Chief Medical Officer says we separately need revived to cope with drug resistance.

Meanwhile, I hardly need to add, the CEO walks off with banker-style bonuses: a golden hello last year of £4m, and to come a 180% performance related annual bonus. So it’s all about him and not about the ostensible purpose of the company: to make the drugs we need.