How Do You Know About Snow?!!

Every morning this week I've woken up to a thin veil of snow covering everything outside my windows. I love when winter is just beginning and you can smell that unique crispness in the air that means that a good snowstorm is eminent.

It always puts me in a cozy, curl-up-by-the-fire sort of mood. And what does one do whilst curled up by the fireplace? In my opinion, there is nothing better than settling in with a good blog article! That's just me though.

Snow, as most everyone knows, forms when water droplets inside of a cloud freeze and then fall to earth. It is interesting however, exactly what the conditions must be for snow to form.

Snow must begin as a tiny nucleus and then form a crystal before it can take on the familiar flake shape. Inside the cloud, a few water molecules must become woven together and form a shape similar to a lattice. Then a water droplet must come into contact with this lattice and freeze around it. This forms a nucleus.

Dust, volcanic ash, or even sea salt particles can act as nuclei for an ice crystal as well. These nuclei allow condensation to take place. Without something to cause condensation to begin, water vapor in the atmosphere can remain unfrozen down to -40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Assuming that the temperature is 31 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, the water vapor begins to freeze into ice crystals and expand. As the crystals grow, parts of them break off and act as nuclei for other snowflakes to form. The crystals begin to fall through the air as they gain mass. As they fall through the air they collide with and stick to thousands of other crystals. This process forms the snowflakes that we all recognize.

The most beautiful snowflakes are those that are very wide, but very thin as well. Providing that the flake is large enough for the detail to be seen with the naked eye, this allows us to see one intricate layer of crystals all linked together.

The largest snowflakes on record were fifteen inches across and fell in Keogh, Montana in 1887.

Probably your whole life you have heard that every single snowflake is unique and there is not another like it. This is only partly true.  It is very possible that could spend your whole life searching for two identical snowflakes and never find them. But it is a statistical impossibility for each flake to have a unique shape and composition. Nature likes symmetry and patterns too much to be so original.

Another bit of trivia that is passed around is that the Innu eskimos have many words in their language for snow. Again this is partially true. The two most commonly spoken languages of these people are Innuit and Inuktitut. In these languages, they simplify the use of several adjectives into one word. For example, snow that drifts into a wave like pattern could be described with one word in Innuit. So, while they only have one word that translates literally to "snow," they do have many words that describe different conditions of snow.

One of my favorite natural phenomena is the peaceful quiet that seems to steal over everything after a fresh snowfall. This is occurs because air trapped between the crystals tends to trap sound waves and dampen vibrations. Once snow has been blown around by the wind or melted and packed down, it loses its ability to muffle sound.

Interestingly enough, if snow becomes hard enough, it can also enhance acoustics of a landscape. The snow in Antarctica is so hard and flat that researchers have reported the ability to hear human voices speaking at a normal volume from distances of up to a mile away.

Fresh snow can reflect more than 90% of ultraviolet light. This can cause a condition called Ultraviolet Keratitis. This is more commonly referred to as snow blindness. It is a painful condition that results from overexposure of the cornea to UV light. Essentially it's a sunburn inside your eyes. Snow blindness most commonly occurs in polar regions or at very high altitudes.

In addition to snow blindness, intense light reflections from the snow have caused a handful of documented cases of Poblokto. A syndrome also called Arctic Hysteria. Little is known about the cause of the syndrome other than it occurs when snow reflections are especially bright. The syndrome is seen almost exclusively in native societies that live close to the Arctic Circle. Symptoms can include hysteria, depression, echolalia (senseless repetition of words,) and insensitivity to cold. Sufferers are known to be so insensitive to the cold that they often strip off their clothing and run naked through the snow.

Everyone knows better than to eat yellow snow. Well, most everyone that is. But there are plenty of would be explorers who have never been warned against eating the pink snow. The color comes from a species of pigmented algae that grows in the ice. It is often called watermelon snow as it resembles the fruit and even gives off the same scent. Unfortunately, eating watermelon snow can cause illness due to the bacteria that feeds off the algae.

It is intriguing how much awe snow seems to inspire in us as humans. For most people, the fascination and curiosity caused by the different elements fades as we grow older. But snow never quite seems to lose its magical properties.

It is difficult not to feel a childlike sense of excitement as you watch the first snowfall. And a fresh white blanket of snow never ceases to steal our breath away with its beauty. 

How Do You Know About The Body Farm?!!

Alright, alright, before I begin this article and before I take any more flack from my readers, we need to address the elephant in the room. Yes, I took a two week hiatus from writing. I know, you all missed me and your Fridays just weren't quite the same without my articles to get you going in the morning...

But cheer up! I'm back in action and ready to bring you more useless information. Hopefully I can throw a little entertainment in there while I'm at it.  

Now, today's article may be unsuitable for those who are squeamish. Read on at your own risk! 

Behind the University of Tennessee Medical Center there is a 2.5 acre plot of woods sectioned off by a wooden fence. The outside of this fence is surrounded by a chain link fence. And just for good measure, the chain link fenced is crowned with a menacing coil of razor wire. 

As if the sickly, syrupy scent of something rotting isn't enough to keep curious passers-by from attempting entry, signs are posted along the outer perimeter of the fence that warn, "RESEARCH FACILITY. BIOHAZARD. NO TRESPASSING."  

This is The Body Farm.  

Dr. William Bass is the man responsible for establishing The Body Farm. He was appointed head of the University's anthropology department in 1971. He was also the official forensic anthropologist for the State of Tennessee. As such, he was often consulted by the police when cases involved decomposing human remains.  

However, at this point in history, little was known about human decay. And half of what was known was astonishingly inaccurate. As you can imagine, this was detrimental to Tennessee's finest when it came to solving cases that were any older than a few months.  

In one instance, Dr. Bass was called upon to estimate how long some human remains had been decomposing. Using the conventional methods for the time, he deduced that the individual had been dead for approximately one year. It couldn't have been any longer judging by the amount of  moist flesh that was still attached to the bones. Later on, other evidence proved that the body had been in it's coffin since the Civil War Era. The coffin was made of materials that contained lead which contaminated and effectively embalmed the body, making it nearly impervious to decomposition.   

This and other similar cases led Dr. Bass to ask the University to allow him to build a research facility where he and his Forensic Anthropology students could better understand the decomposition process of a human being.  

Nowadays, the farm receives around fifty bodies a year. All of them have requested that their body specifically be used for research on the farm. All of them are basically dumped somewhere in the woods and left for various periods of time.   

They are all left to decompose in different scenarios as well. They are left in cars, in shallow graves, submerged in water, inside cement vaults, in plastic bags, and some even in suitcases. Fairly often the bodies are subjected to chemical contact or fire to study the outcome.   

Students and their professors keep frequent and detailed records of their observations. Occasionally professional law enforcement members will take a field trip the the farm to take notes on a particular case study. They've even reported that several cub scout troops have requested to tour the farm. These requests were respectfully denied.  

Through the information gathered at The Body Farm and others like it, we have learned an immense amount about the process the human body goes through as it decomposes. Once death occurs, human decomposition begins to take place about four minutes later. Cells that are deprived of their usual supply of nourishment begin to die. Rigor Mortis takes place a few hours later because the chemicals that normally allow muscle fibers to slide freely have been metabolized by that point.   

Blood pools in the lowermost regions of the body causing the pallid color corpses are known for. Flies can detect the scent of a corpse from up to a mile away. They are attracted to the scent as a corpse is an ideal place for them to lay their eggs. Once the eggs hatch into maggots, the larvae will feed on the subcutaneous layer of fat.  

The brain tissue slowly begins to liquefy and seep out of the orifices in the head over the course of the next several days. The abdomen begins to turn green and bloat due to activity from the bacteria that naturally live their. The same thing can happen to the neck and face, especially the mouth area, making identification difficult at this stage.   

Blisters sometimes begin to form on the surface of the skin which eventually begins to peel off in large sheets. The skin on the hands will often slough off in one complete piece in a process known as "gloving."   

One of my personal favorite discoveries made by the iron-stomached students there is that they can soak the piece of skin that has sloughed off the hand in warm water to restore its flexibility. Then they can slip the "glove" right onto their own hand and take a perfectly good set of fingerprints.    

After most or all of the skin is gone and bone tissue is now exposed, the decomposition process begins to slow down. The process of skeletonization occurs when the last of the soft tissue is gone. But even at this stage, the corpses serve a purpose. The bones are removed from the farm and steam cleaned. Then they are added to the skeletal archives at the University so they may aid science even further.   

Dr. Bass does not teach any longer but he continues to occupy the position of Head of Forensics Anthropology. He has written a few books about his experiences at the University and continues to advocate the need for more decomposition research facilities. Unfortunately that is easier said than done due to the fact that no one wants to live next to a forest filled with rotting corpses and college-aged CSI fans.  

While it's obvious why the practice lacks general appeal, it is indisputable that the information gathered at The Body Farm has made forensic science what it is today. Countless cases that would have gone unsolved are now closed thanks to the work performed by the students and their professors.

How Do You Know About Lake Vostok?!!

On June 23, 1961, The Antarctic Treaty System was officially put into force. Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, The Soviet Union, The United Kingdom, and The United States were the twelve original signatories.

Essentially, the treaty ensures that Antarctica will always be a place that all nations have free access to the continent in order to conduct scientific study, as long as all research has peaceful purposes. The treaty forbids any sort of military action, such as weapons testing, but not the presence of military personnel.

It is thanks to this treaty that Vostok Research Station exists. It sits about 800 miles from the geographic South Pole on an Australian piece of territory. Research conducted at Vostok consists of aerometeorology, actinometry, geophysics, medicine, climatology, and magnetometry. Due to its position on the globe, it is the most isolated research station in existence.

 Vostok is likely most well known to the public for two things. One, being the site of the lowest reliably recorded temperature on Earth. (-128.6 F) And two, the climate research they conduct by drilling massive core samples of ice out of the sheet they are situated on.

By analyzing the hundreds and hundreds of layers in these core samples, they are able to study Earth's bygone climates.  To date they have drilled through approximately 414,000 layers. This puts them about two miles deep in the ice.

However, once they reached this depth, the layers stopped. The samples that they began to pull from the hole at this point were clear and pretty much devoid of information. Scientists were baffled as to why this might be. In search of answers, the Russians drilled on.

It was not long until the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) used airborne radar and satellite altimetry to try to discover what was lying over two miles beneath the ice and causing the anomalies in the core samples. When the men and women at SCAR realized what could be seen using those imagery techniques, they urged their Russian colleagues to halt all drilling immediately.

As improbable as it was, it appeared that deep under Vostok there was a liquid freshwater lake. The core samples that the Russians had recently pulled from the ice were from where the liquid freshwater came in contact with the ice above it and froze. The hole they had bored stopped within a mere 300 feet of the surface of the lake.

The satellite and radar images showed that the lake had a surface area approximately equivalent to that of Lake Ontario but was more than three times as deep as the great lake. The temperature is estimated to be about 26 degrees Fahrenheit but due to the enormous pressure of the ice slab above it, the water remains in liquid form. It is also suspected that geothermal heat provides some ambient warmth at that depth.

If it's difficult to picture, Columbia University has published this diagram of the lake.

The clear samples at the bottom of the Russian most recent cores provided some insight into the conditions of the lake. We know the lake is made up of freshwater because there is no salt present in the samples. We also know thanks to these samples that there is an incredible amount of oxygen in the water. Oxygen dissolves much more readily into water under enormous pressure.

If the Russians had continued drilling for much longer they may have encountered a geyser of unheard of proportions thanks to the astonishing amount of pressure the lake was under. Also, had they actually drilled into the surface of the lake, it would have been contaminated by the sixty tons of kerosene and freon they had filled their borehole with to prevent it from re-freezing and all hopes of studying this entirely untouched environment would have been lost.

Of course, as soon as the lake was discovered, a huge debate arose concerning the likelihood of finding life under such conditions. Because of the frigid temperature, the absence of sunlight, and the toxic levels of oxygen in the water, many scientists are certain that the lake is sterile. That would be a breakthrough discovery in its own right since there are presently no completely lifeless bodies of water known to mankind.

Others suggest that it is not unreasonable to expect life of some form to be discovered there. After all, extremophile organisms had been discovered in the most unlikely of places on our planet. There are some that live in the volcanic vents on the ocean floor, others that have been found living in the frozen arctic soil, and even some that have been found living in the rocks deep within the earth's crust. With this evidence, it is not ridiculous to assume there could be creatures suited to life under such conditions.

Another interesting point that scientists have made is that the conditions of Lake Vostok are remarkably similar to the ocean beneath the surface of Jupiter's ice moon, Europa. Analyzing such a similar environment on our own planet could have interesting extraterrestrial complications.

Presently, researchers are still contemplating the best method to investigate the lake without contaminating it. The introduction of any chemical or even a single microorganism from the surface could irreversibly pollute the ecosystem. There are also some scientist who advocate avoiding the lake altogether. Millions of years of evolutionary isolation could have resulted in bizarre organisms that may present a very real danger to humans

It has also been reported that the Russian researchers very much intend to reach the lake before anyone of their rivals. If something prompts them to restart their drilling, little can be done to stop them.

However, if science does get the opportunity to study Vostok Lake, the amounts of knowledge to be gained would be enormous. If the lake is found to be sterile, it would finally provide some context to the practical limits of life. But if life is indeed discovered, even if it's only in microbial form, it will not only have immense scientific implications beyond the scope of our planet, but it will show that world that life is made up of truly resilient stuff.