On the Record

“I am the most loved woman in the world, the one with the smile full of mystery.”

The Mona Lisa introduces herself, thanks to a Japanese forensics expert who claims that he has recreated the sound of her voice.

“Like a 300-year-old Wal-Mart on the bottom of the ocean.”

Explorer Barry Clifford describes the huge number of artefacts recovered from the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Sources: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times

Scorecard

Asparagus

A UK botanist helps save wild asparagus by fertilizing one of the plant's few remaining females with pollen from male plants 200 km away.

Publishing opportunities

Bird flu gets a journal all to itself, as Blackwell launches Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. For those tired of avian influenza, it will also, as advertised, cover a range of respiratory viruses.

Smallpox

World health officials postpone smallpox's doom once more, as they fail to set a date for the destruction of the last stocks of the virus.

Number crunch

Drinking alcohol can make you do stupid things — and for some it can mean more than just a hangover. A few facts from a recent survey of drinkers attending hospital with injuries might give you pause as you reach for your glass.

3.8% of drinking-related injuries are intentionally self-inflicted.

14% of drinking-related injuries are intentionally inflicted by someone else.

32.4% of drinking-related injuries result from falling or tripping, the most common source of harm.

Source: Borges, G. et al. Bull. World Health Org. 84, 453–460 (2006)