Climate Progress reports that scientists from Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M “have ‘signed contracts with BP to work on their behalf in the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) process’ that determines how much ecological damage the Gulf of Mexico region is suffering from BP’s toxic black tide. The contract, the Mobile Press-Register has learned, ‘prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.” More at Think Progress, where the story broke.