What do you get when you mix the UK's leading "bad science" columnist, an intrepid blogging professor, a lecturer and herbal medicine practitioner, the husband of a lecturer and herbal medicine practitioner, a classic blog-fearing university, and the angry voices of the multitudes in the blogosphere?

If it isn't obvious already, the answer is pure entertainment. So Blogscholar brings you a brief summary of the tale of this combustible mix.

It started when UCL pharmacology professor David Colquhoun questioned claims by herbalist and University of Reading lecturer Dr Ann Walker on his UCL-hosted blog Improbable Science. In particular he critiqued Walker's descriptions of Red Clover as a "blood cleanser". Walker's husband took it upon himself to complain to the UCL provost of defamation. UCL responded and attempted to quietly banish the blog from its servers but of course, as ever with academic institutions these days, grossly underestimated the reaction of the blogosphere to such a move.  Spurred on by the popular "Bad Science" column by Ben Goldacre in the Guardian, bloggers created an avalanche of feedback theat UCL could not resist, and voila, Improbable Science is back online. But what of poor Ann Walker? The ever reliable Goldacre fills in the gap ... "But amusingly, in these democratic times, there are inevitable consequences of trying to silence a blogger - especially when you make a hash of it - and a mass of activity has now grown into what is cheerfully being described as 'a festival of Ann Walker'. As the Sciencepunk blog gleefully points out, Ann Walker's claims are now more famous than ever."

So read all about it: Improbable Science is back, a history of events from Colquhoun, Goldacre's last column on the story, an open letter from a Yale University professor on the topic, the Festval of Ann Walker, one of the columns from Ann Walker that stirred up the analysis and a list of some of her other columns.

For similar on Blogscholar see: Publishing Tidal Wave and Cole on the Blog Fire