Liar, Liar...

It's with a little amusement, considering my last post, I stumble upon this from CORDIS (Community Research and Development Information Service) courtesy of the EU Commission:

Liar, liar nose on fire

European researchers have made a major advance in thermal imaging techniques that is bringing to life an old fable. Everyone is familiar with the children's story of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet, with a nose that grew every time he told a lie. Now researchers from Spain are seeing parts of this tale ring true.

The researchers from the University of Granada, Department of Experimental Psychology have discovered that when a person lies he or she experiences what they have termed a 'Pinocchio effect'. During the Pinocchio effect the subject may experience an increase in the temperature around their nose and in the orbital muscle in the inner corner of their eyes. In addition to this, the researchers discovered that when people perform a considerable mental effort, temperature around the face drops, and when we have an anxiety attack our face temperature rises. These are some of the conclusions that were arrived at in their pioneering study and as a result of their new applications in the field of thermography.

Given that the Spanish University of Granada "in most cases [receives]funding from the European Union", via the European University Association, I'm sure we are all agreed that this research is a wonderful use of our money.

But more importantly what would Cameron or Health look like using thermal imaging techniques, one wonders whether it would need significant recalibration just to register an image, given that it would otherwise go off the scale.