The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee will go to great lengths to court controversy. Even to Italy, it seems. Not content with stoking a row with the Government this week over open-access publishing, rumour has it that the scandal-mongering MPs will clamber aboard a flight to Rome to taunt the Pope about his views on "designer babies" and other reproductive technologies. If this pushes the increasingly frail Pope over the edge, the committee will be sure to grab the headlines.