As it tours round Scotland it is staffed by volunteer scientists and engineers. This week the volunteers in Caithness were electrical apprentices Jamie Spargo, Matthew Sutherland, Grant Anderson and Gordon MacLeod, from Dounreay, and Angela Squier and Martina Burtscher from Thurso's Environmental Research Institute (ERI).

It is to the great credit of these people that they gave of their time to get youngsters interested in science - for that is what the Lab in a Lorry is about - and it is excellent that Dounreay and ERI let their staff take part in something like this.

For my own part I have always had an abiding interest in science, ever since I was given a chemistry set when I was seven.

Oh, I loved that chemistry set! I remember mixing all the chemicals together in the hope of creating a huge explosion. In fact all I achieved was the removal of the varnish on the table I was working on. I went on to study physics and chemistry at school; and I ended up reading geology at university. However, I didn't take it further than second year (I finished with a degree in history).

I discovered that a geologist with the name Stone had humorous potential - and more importantly that it was a nearly impossible subject for someone who couldn't see the rocks properly. I am red-green colour blind.

During my science years, I believe that it is true to say that science was a "sexy" subject. It was a firm favourite with pupils, and while the prospect of a double period of French was viewed with gloom and resignation, the same time spent doing experiments and learning science was much looked forward to. We were enthusiastic about science.

The same was true across the country. Science was seen as the way ahead. Atomic energy at Dounreay, Concorde, the hovercraft, the television programme Tomorrow's World and the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson's talk of the "white heat of the technological revolution" were manifestations of this spirit of the age.

Fast forward to today - and I found myself sitting next door to a young female fund manager at a City of London lunch. I asked her what she had studied and what had taken her into the world of finance. The pay, she said, and then she told me that she had a first-class honours degree in chemistry. Knowing that degrees of that quality are rare indeed, I asked her why she wasn't doing research or lecturing at one of our universities. She repeated her first answer. It was the pay.

I was terribly struck by that conversation.

When the Lab in a Lorry was at Golspie High School last week, I was interested to hear one of the volunteers ask the second-year pupils what their favourite subjects were. "PE... art... PE... PE."

"Anyone saying science?" There was complete silence. My goodness, how different this was to my day.

Two thoughts arise from the Lab in a Lorry. The first is that it really does rekindle the fire of interest in science that enthused my generation. To see the pupils in Wick work out which angle on the blades of a model windmill (when air was blown on it) made the lights shine the brightest in a doll's house was fascinating. They weren't even faintly shy, and very keen to show me how they had solved the problem.

The second thought is that now, more than ever, we need to think our way out of the huge problems we face. Global warming, health problems, dwindling fossil fuels, mountains of rubbish, the continuing extinction of plant and animal species - I could go on, but my goodness, this is where we need our scientists. As a country, as a world even, we need to enable anyone with an aptitude for science realise their full potential. I wish my lunch neighbour the best of fortune in the financial world, but it seems a shame she is not working in science.

So things like the Lab in a Lorry should be encouraged and supported. The fact that the organisers are unsure of their funding in the future is appalling. It was for this reason that I agreed to table written questions in the Scottish Parliament asking what plans the Scottish Government has to help fund the Lab in a Lorry. I felt that it was the least I could do for them.

Today, Friday, the show will be in Farr High School. I trust that the financial problems will be solved and that we'll see it back again during the years to come. Like the Caithness Science Festival, it does a great deal of good and is entirely relevant.

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