Showing posts with label ice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ice. Show all posts

Monday, March 15, 2010

Shrimp on ice

What lives under Antarctic Ice? Scientists thought maybe nothing, except those silly little microbes that live everywhere. But guess what happens when you do an actual experiment, sometimes you find a big surprise.

Like the false bologna sandwich hypothesis, the now-discredited "nothing big lives under the ice" hypothesis is toast.

As soon as scientists placed cameras under the 600 foot thick Antarctic ice sheet at the bottom of a hole drilled through the ice, a cute little 3 inch long orange shrimp settled down on the camera cable and stared at them (photo at top left). Wondering, no doubt, how creatures can live outside of the nice comforting dark water that's always the same comforting temperature of 272 degrees Kelvin.

That's right folks, harsh is in the eyes of the beholder. An Antarctic shrimp must find it's own habitat to be quite nice, and a tropical beach in the Bahamas would be like being cooked in boiling water. It's all what you're used to.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Lake Geneva ice

It's been cold here in the lower Jura, and we found some amazing shoreline ice along Lac Léman (Lake Geneva in English).

The ice builds up on the railing at the Gland town beach near home, with waves splashing water onto the sub-freezing rail. It's been below 0 C for over a week, and the ice is getting sort of thick.

Now what do you suppose a 5 year old boy might do with an icicle? Yes, an ice saber (right).