Rapid cooling

With reference to Malcolm Christopher’s letter reporting coots and moorhens entombed in a sheet of ice, and SD Tucker’s response to it [ FT331:73, 333:67], I am reminded of one of the articles in a New Scientist Daedalus column from many years ago, in which it was suggested that the excellent preservation of frozen mammoths might be due to a freak naturally occurring ‘maser cooling’ effect. These columns were written by Dr David EH Jones and were often deliberately mischievous and fanciful. I think the most plausible mechanism for trapping these unfortunate animals in ice is ‘Night Radiative Cooling’ (neat summary available here: http://www. asterism.org/tutorials/tut37%20 Radiative%20Cooling.pdf). The ‘cold sky’ is a direct view of deep space, which is at a few degrees above absolute zero. Heat can in principle be rapidly sapped from an object near room temperature by radiative cooling in this way – if atmospheric conditions permit. Clear skies, low humidity and no wind can potentially allow a rapid drop in temperature of several degrees if conditions are right. Ian I’Anson By email Paul Vought noticed this patch of condensation looking like a cherubic face, which appeared on a window for three mornings in a row. We are always glad to receive pictures of spontaneous forms and figures, or any curious images. Send them to the PO box above (with a stamped addressed envelope or international reply coupon) or to sieveking@forteantimes.com – and please tell us your address. verse where Arnold Schwarzenegger was never in the film Total Recall but Colin Farrell was? If you crossed over from one parallel universe into another, how would you know? My theory is that the changes would be so subtle you would hardly notice them. It could possibly take hundreds or thousands of alternative universes before you would notice that things were dramatically different. Leslie W Hurn Norwich, Norfolk where he was going by the way the grass was moving.” Mark Willis Los Angeles, California