Ministers see this as a potentially planet-friendly way of building new coal fired power stations, such as the one E.ON wants to construct at Kingsnorth, in Kent.

Professor John Gunstad, of Kent State University, Ohio, said the research showed obesity can damage the brain, 'especially the parts most important for paying attention and learning new things'.

The idea isn't entirely new - Kent Beck wrote on Real Options in his 1999 "white book" (Extreme Progamming Explained).