A new report calls for better training for journalists who write about science, especially in the understanding of statistics.

There are big gaps in UK data on swine flu, many of them because so few virological confirmations of H1N1 seem to be being undertaken anywhere. But virology matters - and if more tests had been done, we might begin to understand why the number of people in hospital for swine flu in England is so much greater than in Scotland.

Pity poor Darwin. So many people are using his bicentenary as a grindstone on which to hone their prejudices.