Will trapped French trains be rescued by ice worms? Film at 11
Bill Bonde {Colourless green ideas don't sleep furiously)
#begin quote
Ice worm refers to any of a number of species of worm that live in
glacial ice, such as Mesenchytraeus solifugus, M. harrimani, M.
kuril, M. maculatus, and M. obscurus.
The first ice worms species were discovered in 1887 in Alaska, on
the Muir Glacier. These glacier ice worms can be found on glaciers
in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. They have not
been found in other glaciated regions of the world. The name
"solifugus" is Latin for "sun-avoiding", as ice worms retreat
underneath the ice before dawn. Enzymes in ice worms have very low
optimal temperatures, and can be denatured at even a few degrees
above 0�C. When ice worms are exposed to temperatures as low as
5�C, their membrane structures disassociate and fall apart (i.e.,
"melt") causing the worm itself to "liquify". Ice worms are several
centimeters long, and can be black, blue, or white in color. The
ice worms come to the surface of the glaciers in the evening and
morning. On Suiattle glacier in the North Cascades population
counts indicated over 7 billion ice worms on that glacier alone.
It is not known how ice worms tunnel through the ice. Some
scientists believe they travel through microscopic fissures in ice
sheets, while others believe they secrete some chemical which can
melt ice by lowering its freezing point, like an antifreeze. They
feed on snow algae.
In 1997, methane clathrate deposits in the ocean floor were found
to be inhabited by a specialized worm of the class polychaete. The
worms were given a species name, Hesiocaeca methanicola, and are
often called Methane Ice Worms.
[edit] Ice worms in culture
Scottish-born Canadian poet of the Yukon Robert W. Service wrote a
poem, "Ballad of the Ice-worm Cocktail", in which a fake ice worm
made of spaghetti is the subject of a bar bet. This may have
contributed to the impression that ice worms are mythical
creatures.
"When the Ice Worms Nest Again" is a folk song that became popular
in the 1920s and 1930s. The lyrics may have been invented by Robert
Service.[1]
Science fiction author Alastair Reynolds made ice worms the subject
of his short story Glacial in a collection titled Galactic North.
While the ice worms themselves are stupid, deterministic biological
machines, the chemical trails they leave through the ice act as
behavior-modifying signals for subsequent ice worms, creating a
vast, if exceedingly slow, neural network in the pervasive glacial
covering of an alien planet. Reynolds specifically compares the ice
worm analogues in his story to terrestrial ice worms, in particular
referencing a small pore just above their mouths which secretes
salts to help them burrow through ice (see Road salt). Note that
the behavior of the ice worms in this story is very similar to the
computer simulation Langton's Ant, which demonstrates the potential
complexity of emergent systems when following very simple rules.
Science fiction author Peter F. Hamilton also used ice worms in his
novel Fallen Dragon. An alien planet named Amethi has succumbed to
"iso-lock," a permanent ice age in which even the atmosphere has
frozen, and the emerging biosphere on the planet has essentially
died. The planet is discovered by humans and seeded with artificial
life forms phenotypically very similar to ice worms. The
distinguishing characteristic of these worms is that, while they
chew through the ice and organic material of the dead planet, they
excrete terrestrial bacteria as a first step in terraforming the
planet to make it suitable for human habitation.
The small town of Cordova, Alaska has an annual Ice Worm Festival
in February, in which a long imitation ice worm is paraded through
the streets rather like a Chinese new year dragon dance.
#end quote
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