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July 21, 2015 12 mins
In 1846, a dead snail was glued to a specimen card in the British Museum. In 1850, somebody realized that the snail...wasn't so dead after all, kicking off a curious story of molluskular stoicism that charmed the mid 19th C. science-and-nature circuit. But what went on in the ensuing 150 years? Site user "nicebookrack" wanted to know, and posted question to Ask MetaFilter asking, well, whatever happened to the snail that wouldn't die?

The answers she got put her on the path to reaching the Natural History Museum's Jon Ablett, Curator of Mollusca, who was able to help her put together the missing details, all of which she collated into a fantastic post on MetaFilter.

In this episode, I talk with nicebookrack about the snail's story, how it caught her attention in the first place via Project Gutenberg, and her experiences putting the whole thing together.

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