...crawl under your desk to avoid an imminent deadline...

Actually mummies have been the subject of non-intrusive imaging techniques quite a few times, although I don't have any links at hand - there's been a lot of autopsy-type investigations of Egyptian mummies, at least.

I was very disappointed to click on this and not find an account of a bowl of broth consuming a human being.

"Consensus" as it is used by scientists these days refers to a general agreement reached independently by as many scientists as subscribe to it. It's not groupthink. It's imposed by the data.

This, perhaps?

Sakharov referred to these statistically-excess deaths as the result of above-ground nuclear testing as "perfect murders" - nobody could point to any one of them and say that this person would not have died if there had been no nuclear testing, but the increase in the death rate was nonetheless due to these tests.

Absolutely. Too bad, it was Sound Science up to that point.

A fellow by the name of Claude Balls.

Great choices, Annalee.

I'm told on very good authority* that it tastes dreadful, at least in a polenta recipe. Way too rich and chewy - sort of like a combination of liver and gristle.

Not much, though. Funny that so much of the Caspian's offshore surface is obscured in GoogleEarth.

Yeah, the Daily Mail is the go-to source for all of your up-to-date, peer-reviewed scientific information. Lots of valuable stuff there. What do you make of Peaches Geldof's pregnancy?

Pretty fucked.

Yeah. Snakes and lizards are generally not brainy.

Pigliucci is also a working scientist. He hasn't made a career out of sitting around and thinking.

Word.

No, since the ReformaTories took over, there's been a huge chill at Environment Canada - scientists not allowed to talk to the press in case they say something Canada's New Government doesn't find politically acceptable, long-term environmental monitoring projects getting their funding yanked because their findings…

When the phytoplankton dies and decays, it uses up oxygen. That's what has been happening in the Gulf of Mexico and in Chesapeake Bay.

A bit like some of Roger Dean's album covers.