Hair ice mystery solved
Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 09:00
in Biology & Nature
Hair ice -- a type of ice shaped like fine, silky hairs that resembles white cotton candy -- grows on the rotten branches of certain trees when the weather conditions are just right, usually during humid winter nights when the air temperature drops slightly below the freezing point. Now scientists have identified the missing ingredient, a fungus, that gives hair ice its peculiar shape.