science!!!

so much science today that it warrants three exclamation points!!!

first, the arguably least science-y of the three, they've apparently found the embalmed head of king henri the iv, assassinated in 1610. it's been passed down through the generations by collectors, and was identified using radiocarbon dating, computer facial reconstruction, and through several distinguishing marks, including an ear-piercing and a facial lesion.

science!

in other science news, they've discovered a particular type of snail that glows under the right conditions, the Hinea brasiliana, which uses its creepy radioactive-like glow to scare off predators. part of the "clusterwink snail" family, its the snail itself that emits the glow, and uses its shell to disperse the light across a larger surface.

science!!

and apparently? there are volcanoes on saturn's moon titan that, rather than lava, emit ice (and hydrocarbons).

i smell sci-fi channel original movie!!! (note: i refuse to call it "syfy" other than in this quick note explaining that i will not do so.) corin nemec, clear your schedule.

(in other news, it only took 16 pages of images in google image search to hit one that was very mildly nsfw...)