Leading article: The trouble with boys and science

Have you ever wondered why there are so few women scientists? According to the deputy director general of the Engineering Employers' Federation, women who give their daughters dolls rather than Lego sets are to blame.

Nonsense. There's nothing amiss between girls and science in those early years. Girls do better than boys at every science other than physics - and it won't be long before they catch up there too. The trouble is that teenage girls are put off by the pustule-cheeked maleness of the science lab, and the machismo of engineering. The fault lies with science, not with girls and their mothers.