Johnson takes scientific approach to jokes

Boris Johnson has poked fun at the Brexit impasse by asking if an atomic microscope could be used to split the deadlock on future cross-border trade.

During a visit to the Naughton Institute at Trinity College Dublin, the foreign secretary met scientists operating a scanning tunneling microscope and said it looked like something from a Jules Verne novel. “Do you think you could use this technology to have frictionless trade?” he asked. “That’s what we need.”

The cutting-edge technology was not the only thing the foreign secretary had a gut feeling about as he also went on to sample a treatment for horses with stomach ulcers.

During a tour of the neighbouring Science Gallery, he tasted the awardwinning FenuSave, a natural equine remedy created by two Irish schoolgirls and sold in 14 countries.

He asked the teenage entrepreneur sisters Annie and Kate Madden: “Do horses like it? Is it good for human beings, because lots of human beings also suffer,” he said.

Annie replied: “The flavourings appeal to horses. They obviously have different tastes from us.”

Boris Johnson and Professor John Boland in Dublin