First, the lobster's metabolism is slowed in below-freezing sea water and then it's immersed in the minus-40 degree brine. Liberman said the lobster freezes so quickly that damage to muscle tissue cells from the formation of ice crystals is minimized.

The lobsters are then thawed in 28-degree sea water. A marketing video from the company shows the lobsters freely wriggling around after about two and a half hours.

The first time they tried it, Trufresh froze about 30 lobsters and two came back to life, Liberman said. But the company wasn't in the lobster business and never pursued it.

A lean, 6ft, 45-year-old mountaineer and entrepreneur, Tim is a strong looking man. He will have to be. Next summer he and his project partner, former UK squad kayaker Geoff Shacklock-Evans, plan to spend several weeks on an iceberg being towed by a kite. The daily routine will involve securing anchor points, handling a revolutionary kite system, taking complex measurements, and staying very alert. Crevasses, seasickness and sub-zero winds will feature.

At least three London dealers are believed to have been duped into buying pictures masquerading as the work of John Anster Fitzgerald (1823-1906), who specialised in disturbing visions of a fairyland peopled with menacing and enigmatic spirits.

In one case it took scientific analysis to prove that the paints used were not available until 1908, two years after the artist's death. "A new John Drew is in town," one specialist said, recalling the conman who in 1998 was found to have defrauded the art world for years.

A day in Noon's $20 million, 100,000-square-foot factory reveals the scale of this titanic takeout. It begins at 6 a.m., when chefs look at estimated orders for tomorrow's meals. By the end of the two-shift day, the factory's kitchens will have served up more than 150,000 meals from a menu of 800 different dishes. Most are Indian, but 72 are Mexican, 40 Thai, and 20 Chinese. The majority of this factory's output is for Sainsbury's, the U.K.'s second-largest supermarket chain. Two more factories in west London supply another half-dozen of the major chains.

At 9 a.m., the supermarkets firm up their orders and the factory crunches into top gear. Raw materials are received, passed through metal detectors (to check for stray bits of machinery and such), and examined for quality. Ingredients for each batch of a recipe are weighed out and piled high on trolleys that are wheeled to huge bratt" pans and steam kettles. The pans cook 500 pounds of rice at a time--the factory boils 15 tons a day--while the sauces are cooked in 1,000- and 2,000-pound kettles with internal stirrers.