That is because, as in the case of the Diels-Alder reaction, it is usually possible to design an ionic solvent that dissolves the reactants easily but is reluctant to give house room to the resultant product.

ECONOMIST: Ionic solvent

In the past year, for example, Dr Seddon and Tom Welton, a chemist at Imperial College London, have shown that one of the most important and difficult processes in industrial organic chemistry, the Diels-Alder reaction (which links carbon atoms together and thus allows big molecules to be assembled) can work better in ionic than in conventional solvents.

ECONOMIST: Ionic solvent

On Monday, BMA chairman Ian Bogle attacked Health Secretary Alan Milburn's reaction to the report into the organ retention scandal at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital as "shockingly hysterical".

BBC: Doctors: 'We're not perfect'