A UK ‘alternatives’ research lab has benefited from a £240,000 expansion and makeover. The Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME) Alternatives Laboratory at the University of Nottingham will be re-opened tomorrow.

According to a University of Nottingham press release, the lab, part of the University’s Medical School, is to be re-opened by cabinet minister Ed Balls MP, who heads up the newly created Department for Children, Schools and Families. Previously he was Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

So what, you might ask, is his connection with Nottingham and the FRAME lab? The press release doesn’t say. Is he the local MP? No. I can reveal the answer to this mystery: his daddy is Professor Michael Balls, ex-director of FRAME and chairman of the FRAME trustees.