Perfectly formed

Nothing is being left to chance at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It issues applicants for its aptly-named research fellowships with an equal opportunities form asking for details of age, sex, marital status, race and such. One sent recently to an applicant for a fellowship in maths and theoretical physics arrived with the boxes for "sex", "married or single" and "ethnic origin" already filled in with "male," "single" and "white".