[Sca-cooks] Fw: NYTimes.com Article: A Drink? The Ice Is Vintage

[Heleen Greenwald]

 A Drink? The Ice Is Vintage
>
> June 1, 2004
>  By ANDREW C. REVKIN
>
>
> To a good scientist, everything is a question.
>
> That was the case in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, on a recent
> Friday night, when weary scientists and research staff
> gathered for farewells before flying home after weeks of
> grueling fieldwork on the two-mile-high ice cap that cloaks
> the giant Arctic island. Many had spent weeks in
> 30-below-zero weather, extracting cores of ice, which
> contain clues to climates past and hints of the future.
>
> Now, it was time to relax.
>
> In the kitchen of a red prefab
> residence building, the group dined on grilled burgers and
> a salad speckled with pine nuts and Greek olives.
>
> Someone pulled out a plastic bag filled with unusable
> chunks of the ice cores.
>
> The scientists call it "party ice." The name refers to the
> fizz and pop that occur when bubbles of ancient,
> pressurized air escape as the ice melts in a liquid.
>
> This batch was labeled "144 m," reflecting the depth it had
> come from (about 470 feet down), 140 years back in time.
> The greater the depth, the more the air is compressed and
> the louder the sound.
>
> But there is another possible variable: Dr. Joseph R.
> McConnell, a snow and ice expert from the Desert Research
> Institute in Reno, Nev., said lore had it that party ice
> makes more noise in an alcoholic beverage than in, say,
> juice or water.
>
> A controlled experiment was proposed.
>
> Glasses of Ballantine's Scotch, Feeney's Irish Cream
> Liqueur, Danish Gammel Dansk bitters and several other
> beverages with varying alcohol concentrations were
> meticulously lined up on a table. Pieces of ice were
> plopped into each glass and ears bent low to assess which
> samples fizzled loudest.
>
> A paper has yet to be submitted for publication, but the
> researchers on hand quickly came to a conclusion that often
> results from scientific analysis:
>
> Further research was required.
>
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/science/01post.htmlex=1087092437&ei=1&en=75c2a69e60bb4a48
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