“We may be surrounded by many more murderous plants than we think.”

Mark Chase, of the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, has penned a new book saying carnivorous behaviour in plants is probably more common than generally believed (press release).

“We detected patterns on the bones of animals indicating that they had been spit-roasted. We have seen some of these same patterns on the human bones.”

Bruno Boulestin, of the University of Bordeaux, is trying to figure out what ancient human bones recovered near the village of Herxheim in Germany can tell us about Neolithic cannibalism (Times).

“We have two inspectors for medical products. I must emphasize that in addition to those two in-country inspectors, many U.S.-based FDA inspectors continue to make short-term trips to China to perform inspections.”

An FDA spokesperson tells the BNET website that it only has two inspectors for medical products in the whole of China [Hat tip: Pharmagossip, which provides a useful map].

“Well liked by the Parisian public, Kiki was famous for his amorous demonstrations accompanied by grunts that echoed throughout the Jardin des Plantes.”

The French National Museum of Natural History says its much loved (and 250kg!) tortoise Kiki has died (AFP), although Google translate will give you a slightly different interpretation of the original French.