Just when he thought it was safe to pass go and collect another two million dollars, Michael Crichton is the target of big wet raspberries from the science and activism communities.

Over at RealClimate, the boffins report Doubts about the advent of spring:

A "consensus view" amongst climate scientists holds that the Northern Hemisphere will be warming this month, as spring is coming. This is thought to be due to the Earth's orbit around the sun and the inclination of the Earth's axis, tilting the Northern Hemisphere progressively towards the sun throughout March and April and increasing the amount of solar radiation received at northern latitudes.

In a new novel, State of Euphoria, bestselling author Michael Crikey uncovers major flaws in this theory and warns against false hopes for the arrival of spring.

And Grist magazine leaks an exclusive from Hollywood Reporter:

Michael Crichton's techno-thriller novel State of Fear would seem an obvious gem for Hollywood, what with its exotic locales, action-packed plot, and attractive heroines. But Crichton has had difficulty getting a high-profile director to take the project on -- because, he says, liberal Hollywood blanches at the thought of producing a movie that attacks the theory of global warming. But the author may have found his hero in Mel Gibson, whose Passion of the Christ made him the go-to director for movies focusing on, um, topics of interest to far-right conservatives.

Caspar Henderson