Genius is as genius does, they might say, except of course geniuses are likely to work out a smarter catchphrase. One that's a palindrome, or something else that's a really clever long word which sounds like it belongs on an airfield. And if you want your kid to become a genius, you'd certainly do their education no harm by picking up a copy of Virtual Laboratory.

This is an educational product aimed at children aged 8 to 11 and it covers the basics of science in everyday terms that kids can relate to. For example, the program won't talk about oxidation, it will couch things in terms of why your bike goes rusty in the rain initially, before moving on to mention the scientific names and processes.

The general format of Virtual Laboratory is that there's a number of topics, about a hundred in total, each of which covers different themes, such as the properties of matter and experiments with water. Each topic begins with a brief introduction and then some sort of interactive experiment.

As an example, in the exploration of gases and their effect on fire, you'll be presented with a fire-breathing dragon and some fire extinguishers. If you use the one full of carbon dioxide, you'll put the flames out, whereas obviously if you pick up the one filled with oxygen you can kiss goodbye to your eyebrows. The experiments can get a little more complex than this and some also contain mini-games for a bit more entertainment value.

Afterwards, Virtual Laboratory follows the practical demonstrations up with some narrated theory. There are also extra snippets of information you can read up on relating to a particular topic and areas of the screen which, when moused-over, produce a noise or some other fun effect. The presentation is impressive: it's very neat and colourful, with thoughtful added touches such as a menu bar which plays musical notes as you highlight the various options.

A bookmark feature is included - if there's an experiment the user enjoys, he or she just has to click on a button that says "I like" - and facilities are provided to jot notes down in a text notepad, or even draw a simple diagram using basic shapes and a freehand tool. The results can be exported to a file or printed.

Overall it's a polished budget program that's well targeted towards its stated age range and doesn't stray into patronising territory. Some of the experiments are a touch simplistic and we did find a couple of bits of menu text that hadn't been translated from the French developer's native tongue, but these are really quite inconsequential moans.

The virtual experiments are both entertaining and educational and this science program has a knack of putting across a point clearly without resorting to condescension. It'll keep the average ten-year-old busy for a few afternoons, which is surely worth ten pounds of anyone's money!