The US military’s ‘human terrain’ programme sounds like a good idea on the surface: Send social scientists into contested area alongside troops, then gather and use cultural information to better inform the relationship between the military and local residents. It sounds like it ought to be win-win, with relationships improving on all sides.

But the Human Terrain System has come under a lot of fire in the past year, not least from anthropologists who worry about social scientists being used to further military aims. Sharon Weinberger, a freelance writer on defense issues, delved into these issues in a feature she wrote for Nature last month (available here, subscription required).

Now there’s more dire news about the safety of researchers involved. Paula Lloyd was interviewing a man in Afghanistan about the price of gas when he apparently threw the liquid on her and set her afire. Teammates threw her into some water and took her immediately to a burn facility; she is now being treated in San Antonio, Texas, for her burns.

Noah Shachtman, on Wired’s Danger Room defense blog, has the details as usual. The Kansas City Star reports that Lloyd was “awake and responsive” on Sunday in the hospital. Reuters says that the Taliban took credit for the attack.

Two other researchers have died in the field doing human-terrain work; Michael Bhatia (pictured, on the left), in Afghanistan in May, and Nicole Suveges, in Iraq in July.

Image: from the memorial page for Michael Bhatia at marshallscholarship.org